ENGLISH Profile

Marisol Otero got a graduation as singing teacher at Ward National Conservatory helped by a scholarship given by Bernardo Houssay's Fundation. Her great career as actress and singer includes remembered successes: Beauty and Beast (she played Belle in 1998 and Mrs. Potts in 2010); she also represented Latin America as Belle at New York Palace Theatre, chosen as one of the three best Belles in the world, in a benefit reward for Unesco, at the fifth anniversary of Beauty and Beast in Broadway (1999); Grease (Sandy); Jesus of Nazareth (Maria); Fiddler on the Roof (Lodel); Nunsense (Sister Amnesia, represented in Miami, USA); Peter Pan (Wendy); Wizard of Oz (Dorita); Borges for Children (main role); among other works. She was also chosen to sing "Un Mundo Mejor" (A better world) for the Pope Benedicto XVI at the World Youth Day in 2005. Nowadays, she runs her own Musical Theatre School and she is claimed by the critics and the audience for her role as Donna, in Mamma Mia! The Musical, Buenos Aires cast. 

Marisol tells her story, first steps in her career and the love she feels for teaching all what she've learned in any way. A beautiful story full of emotions...

"About myself, the school and how it all started…"

Before I tell you my story and why the School exists today I would like to say that I believe in Faith, in the fight, and that things will be what they have to be; in that the universe gives and takes, and that we are a small part of this universe. Everything goes around and what you give will come back to you, especially love, in all its ways, in friendship, in the artistic and the professional. The love between people who have never met, but give a helping hand to someone in need... All this answers the question why I should start a School.

When I was thirteen years old I worked in a factory close to the house where I lived in my childhood town of San Justo. A town as humble as it was beautiful. I was the second of nine children, one of whom is now in heaven. The rest of them, thank God, are very close to me here on earth. As a child I would daydream. Since I was a little girl I have been singing: in the elemental school where I used to sing 'Heroes de Mayo,' and in town contests and family events.

At that age I decided I needed to prepare myself for what I wanted to be. An artist! I loved to dance and act and sing, but I knew that I needed some guidance, so I started to learn singing and acting at the Culture House where I assisted for free. I paid for my bus tickets with the money I earned at the factory. We were a big family with a lot of sisters and brothers and dad worked all day to pay the bills whilst mum took care of us and worked as a dressmaker in the town. Anyway, it was hard to survive.

One day my friend Gabriel Giangrante brought me a newspaper with an interesting announcement. There was a scholarship offered to study at the Bernardo Houssay Foundation. I was only fifteen years old when I sent my application. They politely answered that I should send my qualifications, but the thing was I was not a brilliant student. My application was rejected because they only helped those pupils with excellent qualifications.

I could have given up on the whole matter because there will always be a 'no' as a milestone on your journey, but there was something inside me that made me strong enough to write back. With the help of my friends I recorded my voice in a homemade tape and sent it with another letter. I said that in spite of not having an A in mathematics I loved art and I needed some support because my family was huge in love, but also in people to feed and that my parents couldn't afford to pay for my career.

I waited for a while, full of anxiety (you are filled with hopelessness when you wish for something so deeply). Then one day a letter arrived... they told me they wanted to meet me in person and asked me to go there. One afternoon when the sun was shining, after a two and a half hour bus trip, I arrived at the place. It was a huge building with old doors and high roofs, big and empty rooms and a big table with old people waiting for me. I greeted them warmly and they asked me why I wanted to sing. I answered that singing and acting was my life and that I couldn't be happy without it. Immediately they asked me to sing. I chose Ricardo Montaner's 'Los Hijos del Sol,' a song I liked so much at the time. I sang it with my whole soul, body and voice... I gave all that I could and more... and... I got my reward.

Thanks to them I could complete my singing career with a scholarship at the Word National Conservatory in Ramos Mejia, achieving the degree of singing teacher. At the same time I took dancing lessons at Moira Chapman's Fame Institute with Juan Virasoro, and acting lessons with Gogo Castenieda. A bit later when I was twenty one years old I was selected for the main roll in a big musical - up to that point I was working in other musicals on and off that gave me experience and nice moments. But this was the biggest musical of all time: 'Beauty and the Beast' and the main role of Bella. I loved that role with my heart and still do. The play was taking place at the Opera Theatre and it was hard to be conscious of the whole dimension I was entering... when I was invited to represent Latin countries at New York's Palace Theatre for the Fifth Anniversary of Beauty and the Beast on Broadway; a benefit event for Unesco. Unbelievable!!!!!

Since then I have the great satisfaction of dedicating myself in full to what I most love, with good and bad times (as everybody does), in different plays. Some of them are known internationally like "Socorro, Mi Abuela Tiene Novio", "Sueño de Angeles", "Pasión Bohemia", "Mayoría", "El Che", "Jesús de Nazareth", "Sorpresas", "Grease", "El Violinista Sobre el Tejado", "Sissi la Princesa", "El Mago de Oz", "Peter Pan", "Borges para Niños", "Las d'Enfrente", por segunda vez, "La Bella y la Bestia", "Primeras Damas del Musical", and so on. I was also a television conductor and made my first record 'A Better World' together with Cachorro López, which I sang at the World Event for Youth in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI. I have also worked in Mexico, Colombia and Canada as solo singer for the Polyphonic Chorus of La Matanza, and sung at Colon at the age of eighteen. Now I am happy to be singing at the Opera Theatre, making wonderful music that delights my soul, in 'Mamma Mia'.

For the opportunity to achieve all of this I want to thank the Bernardo Houssay Foundation. Without them, without all that education and preparation, perseverance and effort, none of this could have been possible. So now, my way of giving back to the universe, life and God, everything that I have received, is by teaching, sharing my humble experience, and opening the doors of my school and my heart to those who want to learn. Because of this I am a teacher and together with my working team, we give the best of us and art to all the pupils in my school.

Thank you for trusting in me…

Marisol Otero

(March, 2012) 

Published at http://www.escuelamarisolotero.com.ar

MARISOL OTERO: MAMMA MIA's STAR!

Revista Mia - Nota de Tapa - 24-05-2012 - Por Fernanda Bustos - Fotos Marcelo Dubini

She is one of the most important artists in her country, with a unique voice and talent, but the most significant thing is her simplicity and humility.

It’s amazing to read Marisol Otero’s curriculum, she doesn't seem real. At her 35 years old, she is in charge of her Musical Theatre School and, what’s more, she plays the main role at Mamma Mia! The Musical, that gives her a bigger notoriety because it is something massive. She plays a single and hardened mother.

When she was 19 years old she was chosen to play Belle, the main role in Beauty and Beast. She had gone to the casting to get a secondary role. And from that day she has never stopped in building an ascending career. Curiously, in 2010 she was chosen to be in the same play, selected to be Mrs. Potts, Belle’s housekeeper.

She worked in plays like Fiddler on the Roof, Wizard of Oz and Grease, amongst others. In television she worked on the special program “Tiempo Final”, with Lito Cruz. She also recorded her first album together with Cachorro Lopez and was chosen to sing in front of Pope Benedict XVI.

On stage she gets public’s admiration, off stage she is a simple girl with a very amazing simplicity.

How do you identify with Donna, your character in Mamma Mia?

In spite of the problems, Donna goes ahead. And just like her, I think I am a very hardened and fighting woman, who had to survive in spite of different things and tragedies I had to live with, without being intimidated in front of a “no”.

Does ABBA’s music take part in the story of your life?

Yes, when I was a little girl my mum used to play most of the songs from Mamma Mia and I danced. Later, living in the United States, while I studied I played ABBA’s songs to train because besides their songs being very optimistic they transmit a lot of energy.

Did you see Mamma Mia in other parts of the world?

Yes, and besides, like six years ago, I sent my material for getting a part in Mamma Mia in Spain, and I was pre-selected for playing the role of Sophie, Donna’s daughter. I had to travel there to make the audition, but they chose a brunette woman to play Donna, and as she had nothing to do physically with me, in the end I did not get the part. So I took the chance to visit Spain then just for a week.

How do you deal with being the main character of the most important musical in recent times without presuming?

This is a very hard profession. Today you can be on the top and tomorrow you can be unemployed. If you presume just a little, you can be shot very quickly. When you are on stage, you dress with a suit but when you are outside you are just a simple person. The one that presumes, it is because he/she never understood what is it all about and sooner or later he/she will be beaten against the wall. I can see it in some people who are beginning a career and comes with high airs.

When did you notice you wanted to choose this career?

Since I was a little girl I loved singing. I still have some drawings I used to make when I was four years old and I always drew myself singing with a microphone in my hand. I spent all my time singing, in the school, in the garden, everywhere (laughing). I knew I wanted to be a singer.

Do you come from a family of singers?

Not at all! When my mum was young she sang just a little, but she was never dedicated to this profession. My grandfather –on my dad’s side- used to sing and play the bagpipes. I am the second of eight brothers and sisters, but the first one in having started an artistic career.

What was the first reaction of your family then?

They didn’t want it at all. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer or an accountant. Later over the years he accepted it and he felt the proudest man of the planet. Since I was a little girl I did my best to get singing lessons, in spite of all the troubles we had.

How did you do that?

I come from a very big family and money was not enough. I lived at San Justo and when I was 13 years old I started to work in an insoles factory situated on the corner of our street. I worked there a few hours a day to have my own money and be able to pay for the bus ticket to travel to Ramos Mejia where I took my singing lessons.

Have you ever been so independent and a fighter?

Yes, I have always been a bit of a warrior and I also needed to pay for my own expenses. If I did not have something I needed I tried to get it somehow. If I need a job I can do whatever it is, I don’t get discouraged. And this way of being helped me a lot in life because being like this helped me for example, to win a scholarship that had been denied in the beginning. It was at Bernardo Hussey’s foundation. They used to provide scholarships to excellent students from high school to help them with their studies, but I was not a brilliant pupil, as I did not get an A in mathematics. Anyway I got it!

When you were at school, were you the one that used to sing at school events or even did you take part in contests?

Yes. The first singing contest I won was at San Cayetano’s community, in San Justo, where I went together with my sister Mariela. I used to sing at home with all my sisters and brothers.

So you were a family like the Von Trapp’s, a kind of Sound of Music from Argentina?

Yes (laughing). My dad used to bring us all to those contests by bus and he said: “single row”. We went up to the bus all together and my dad pretended to count us while we were going up and he always counted up to six, but in fact we were eight.

And what happened after you were selected to play the main character at Beauty and Beast?

I was 19 years old and when I was selected, my dad realized I wanted to be an artist and that it was not a hobby. I was at the Conservatory and a dance teacher told us about the casting. I had never been part of any casting and I had only been in very small musicals organized by House Culture in Ramos Mejia.

How did you feel when you go from a town play to be the protagonist of an international musical like that?

It was very crazy! The day I went to the casting I noticed that the only open casting they still had was the one for getting the main roles. I was told to go to the casting for Belle, and they said they would call me to confirm the day and time. When I came back home one of my brothers told me that people from the production had phoned. I almost fainted! I had been selected and I had to come back the following day with a skirt (but my brother understood it was a mini skirt!) and with a lot of makeup. I thought they wanted me for Babet’s role, a very sexy one. So I went to the meeting with a mini-skirt, a top and a big amount of make-up. They asked me to sing and they sent me back home immediately to change my clothes. Two months later I went to the last casting with a very nice dress my mum had made –as she is a dressmaker- and I was chosen then!

And how did it all go on?

Later I was selected to go to Broadway, for the 5th Anniversary of Beauty and Beast, where the three other Belles from all over the world were meeting: they were a German Belle, a Japanese Belle and me.

And how did it happen you went to sing for Pope Benedict XVI?

It was in 2006, for the World Youth Day that took place in Germany. In spite of being a catholic event, it is also pretty ecumenical as it reunites millions of people. I sent material together with an album I had recorded with Cachorro Lopez, which had had a great response in Mexico and Colombia. And one of the songs from that album, “A Better World” was the one I finally sang there. Being there is something that cannot be explained.

Your sister Florencia is also a singer, how do you see her in this profession?

Florencia is 14 years younger than me and she has an incredible force. I remember I brought her with me to a casting I did for Les Miserables when she was 8 years old. And she was the one who took the role, not me! After that I told her: “you learnt all you had to learn”.

Is there a lot of sacrifice in your professional life?

This is fundamental. Even when I used to sing since I was a little girl and I had a nice voice, if you don’t get preparation and if you don’t train yourself you can hardly get any success.

What do you think about the “Singing for a Dream” program?

I have two different opinions: I believe that programs like this one promote singing and dancing and this is really great. But for me, I don’t like scandals. I suffered just that last year when I was coach in that program.

What did your theatre companions say about your participation in that program?

Some of them thought I was humiliating myself for being coach, but I think that I am also a teacher, I have my Musical Theatre School and I show there my teaching skills.

Would you be encouraged to be a participant?

I am a bit ashamed about that. I know it is pretty important, as it happened to Hernan Piquin. He is an impressive artist and it was marvelous that people could see him on TV and discover his art.

You did a CD that had more repercussion abroad than here in Argentina and once you said that “nobody is prophet in his/her own land”, is that so?

Yes, it is a reality that people like more of what comes from abroad and pay more for that than for what they have in their place. Suddenly a Roger Waters comes here, a genius of course, but people pay a fortune for his show and here they say that a ticket for a local play is too expensive. The national artist is pretty devalued.

Anyway for your brother in law, German Trippel, he was discovered from group Mambru, and he has done a good career…

But he does not feel hyper proud of having been in Mambru because he thinks it was a commercial product, exploited then and nothing more. An artist is not the one that becomes the most famous in the world on the following day. Fame can be valuable if you have something to say for doing well to the rest. That’s why I still have confidence in the artisan, in being my own product.

What would you do with a daughter or a son who wanted to be actor/actress or singer?

I would help him/her and, if he/she would like to be a lawyer, it would be the same. But I would love him/her to be an artist (laughing). I would like him/her to be what makes him/her happy.

Do you have any projects in mind?

Yes, I am building a show, Código de Silencio (Silence Code), a musical thriller that will be on stage at Cubo Theatre. I would love to make television as well, so because of that, now that I am at Mamma Mia, I would like that producers came to see the show and they could rediscover me (laughing).

An only Musical:

Mamma Mia, directed by Robert McQueen, broke records all over the world, with over 50 million of spectators in the whole world. Produced by Time For Fun, it lands in this country at Opera Citi theatre. ABBA songs inspired writer Catherine Johnson to make a story like this, full of love and friendship, taking part in a small Greek island. At the wedding eve, a young girl (Sophie/Paula Reca) is looking for the identity of her father and she discovers a personal diary of her mother where she tells about the three men she had had an affair the same week she got pregnant. The young lady invites the three men to her wedding -they are a part of her mother’s past (Donna/Otero) and they have not seen her for the last 20 years-. The success of ABBA’s classical hits like Dancing Queen, Money Money Money and Take a chance on me are part of this delicious night of fun.

MARISOL OTERO and RICARDO ZABALA

Nota Revista Caras - 19-05-2012 - Por Mariano Del Priore

 "Music has joined our lives"

The couple met each other when she was acting in Beauty and Beast, during the ´90, and he was in charge of the illumination of the show. After two years of being married, Mamma Mia actress tells how they combine love and work.

 

They met by the first time during the nineties when he was in charge of illumination and she played Belle at Beauty and Beast. However, the fact that by that time both of them had their own relationships, a predestinated wedding –since they crossed their sights by the first time- was delayed until November 2010, when they decided to get married after a year of living together. Today, after two and a half years of their marriage, Marisol Otero (35) and Ricardo Zabala (40) still have in their eyes that special brightness when they are reflected in the other, and, even though in the beginning she found a bit hard to be part of a work he was producing, they seem to have found the balance they needed for combining work and life.

“He is working on the administration of my Musical Theatre School. We have to take care of the limits for not invading the space of the other, try to be a companion and avoid all kind of mess you can bring to your home. But when you can share a work and help each other, it is great. I think it could be something that can keep the couple together”, says the actress of Mamma Mia, the musical that, from Thursday to Sunday captures the public at Opera Citi Theatre. In fact the talented actress and singer thinks to let her husband to produce her next show once Mamma Mia finishes.

"At the beginning it was hard for me to be part of a project where my husband is the producer, because I have done all by myself during my whole life, and I'd never asked for help... So I was afraid about what people could think", she says.

Even when the experience of working together has been a possitive one, she remarks that having their own independence is really important. 

"It is nice to make some things together, but it is necessary to take care of the couple so I think it is good each has its space", explains Marisol who by next August will attend to the premiere of "Código de Silencio" at El Cubo theatre, a musical thriller which she has created together with Martín Repetto.

And now talking about her personal life she tells us the keys for living as two: "At home we both collaborate with the homework, it cooks the first that arrives home and the one who is not so tired is the one who brings the dogs out. But anyway we both have our things, the perfect couple does not exist", explains Marisol referring to her dreams of becoming a mother. "We would love to become parents, and surely before the end of this year we will return the search. Once I finishes with Mamma Mia I will open the way so that things are as they should be", she says with hope. The real thing is that beyond her wishes of making a film or working in television, or even working together with her younger sister Florencia, there is nothing more important than playing the role she has been dreaming for during her whole life.