On our second day in La Paz we were passed the municipal theater and got an idea of checking what they had that night. They had a program of music by a Bolivian composer "el Jechu" (Jesus Duran) which they said was popular folk music. (They mentioned specific genres like "cuecas", which didn't tell us much.) We decided to check it out.
When we showed up for the concert we started getting a feeling that el Jechu must be more than just a Bolivian composer - the audience greeted him as if he was a real star. It was a strange experience watching the standing applause for a man we knew absolutely nothing about, wondering whether he was just a minor composer with some dedicated fans or perhaps Bolivia's most beloved artist. I mentally ran through a list of Russian composers who I thought would get a similar reception in Russia and wondered what would a foreigner think, had they found themselves at such an event.
The music itself was interesting, but the perfomance seemed lacking. (It turned out to be a whole bunch of people singing el Jechu's songs in his honor. Some of them should never be allowed to sing again.) The show was also accompanied by the world's worst light job, and it's better to not even mention the slideshow. We left during the intermission, not because of short-commings of the show, but simply because we were exhausted. We were planning to just go to sleep, but by the time we got to the hotel the hunger was winning over, so we went down to the main street to get some pizza.