La Cumparsita

The cafe 'La Giralda' in Montevideo, Uruguay, occupies a special place in Tango history. It was there that in the year 1917, the young Gerardo Matos Rodriguez gave (anonymously) the score of a tango he had written to Roberto Firpo and his orchestra to play for the first time. Seven years later, in 1924, while living in Paris, Geraldo found out that La Cumparsita was a major hit. The composer spent the next 20 years in and out of court trying to regain his rights as author of the most famous tango in the world.