Esperanza Fernández, cantaora. Flamenco interview

“Flamenco is the longest career;
you never stop learning”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, November 2005

She just has one album on the market, but over twenty years of a growing career as a cantaora. Esperanza Fernández is an experienced, well-followed artist live. Perhaps because there's not a single Esperanza, but rather many. A chameleon-like cantaora and of her time, she might just as easily play a role in ‘El Café de Chinitas’ by the Spanish National Ballet, as sing as a flamenco vocalist in a jazz orchestra... and without putting aside simple performances of traditional cante. She never stops recalling historical figures such as Pinini de Lebrija and Los Caganchos de Triana, where her family roots lie. But if there is one figure she always keeps in mind, it is La Niña de los Peines, for “she made it easier for all of us female cantaoras”. Of course, she is working on a second album, together with Dorantes, “but I want to take it slowly, I want it to be like the deliveries I've had with my children, with a Caesarean and everything”.

Esperanza Fernández can now be seen starring as the main character in ‘El Café de Chinitas’ by the Spanish National Ballet. How do you manage in that role?

	Esperanza Fernández (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

José Antonio had already gotten the show started as director of the Andalusian Dance Company and he took it back up with the Spanish National Ballet, reviving it last summer at the Generalife Gardens, within Granada's Music and Dance Festival. I'm the common thread of everything. I appear practically throughout the show and I have eight of the songs compiled by Lorca, with music by Chano Domínguez live. It's great. The staging is incredible, the backdrops, the lights... an incredible fantasy. I go along telling what is happening in the café. Logically, the first thing I do is sing the song ‘Café de Chinitas’, with the two Paquiros. I feel really great there. Besides, the live music is lovely, because I'm alone on stage, the musicians are behind me, and I play my role with a bit of acting. And I love that. The people who know me know that I always give it my all. I love acting. I play a really nice role with José Antonio in ‘Las tres hojas’ and in the lullaby.

How did you prepare those songs? Did you listen to the original recording by La Argentinita with Lorca on piano?

I've had some references from La Argentinita and I've listened to her, but I didn't soak her up too much because I don't think any two people are alike. Logically, you have a reference but then you have to do it your way. Besides, the music's got nothing to do with it. Here it has touches of jazz, it has flamenco rhythms - soleá, bulerías... - but it's very, very up-to-date. I've made them a little bit my own. I've also listened to Carmen Linares and Ana Belén, who have recorded them. And the truth is they're really old songs and everybody knows them; I even used to listen to them when I was a little girl. My kids even know them and everything.

How's the preparation coming along of your second album with Dorantes as producer?

I'm doing it, but I want to take it slowly. I don't want to do the same thing as in the first one, which was like a really fast delivery; I hardly even realized what was going on. And I want this second album to be like the deliveries I had with my own kids... with a Caesarean and everything! Dorantes and I are working on it little by little. We look over a song, we look over another... we record them. And meanwhile, both of us are working on other projects. I can't even tell you when it'll come out, or how, or anything; just that we're working on it. It's going to be traditional flamenco, but with stories of today... Now then, there'll be surprises.

Do you connect especially well working with Dorantes?

Yeah, yeah, we connect in everything. Personally too, because he's a tremendous person. And as a musician, well, what can I tell you. The truth is that I'm really lucky because we understand each other very well; both on and off stage. When we talk, we coincide on a lot of musical things and that makes it go smoothly when you get up their and perform. Now we've recorded a song for the Caja San Fernando Christmas carol album (not sold). The lyrics and melody are gorgeous. We did something lovely and in no time at all.

Esperanza Fernández (Foto: Daniel Muñoz)

How has your career developed since your first album?

I've gotten a great deal of experience with a great many very different collaborations. The truth is that I haven't needed an album out at all. You can see I've been working for twenty years... and with just one record out on the market. And it's a good sign that people follow me. That's a satisfaction for me. But of course, I understand that they want to hear a second album. And I understand it for myself, too. But since I work a lot, thank God, people always have a chance to hear me.

How do you feel your cante is evolving?

	"After having been a mother is when I've felt most consolidated as an artist"

Very well, especially because, as I was telling you, I have a lot of experience. But like I always say, flamenco is the longest career; you never stop learning. And you're settled down now, you know what you want. When you're a mother, things really change in your life in general. All we artists who are mothers coincide in that it changes your way of performing, your voice... My life has changed completely. I'm very happy and you can see that on stage. After having been a mother is when I've felt most consolidated as an artist. I've gotten rid of a lot of fears. You always have absolute respect on stage, but there's more self-confidence.

Do you have any plans to put together any shows of your own like ‘Evocación’, premiered at Seville's last Bienal?

	Esperanza Fernández (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

We haven't performed that again in its entirety, but we've done parts, whether it's with Miguel Ángel Cortés on guitar or Manolo Franco on guitar. It's never too late; it might be revived at any time at any theater that wants it. But I'm working a great deal with my shows, both abroad and in Spain. Next year, for example, I'm going to New York with a show Miguel Vargas dances in, to France singing popular songs with a jazz orchestra and to Madrid's Teatro de La Zarzuela for two weeks with ‘El Café de Chinitas’. I also presented a new show recently in Almagro with a selection of compiled lyrics by Demófilo. We did cantiñas, tientos tangos, a song by Gabriela Mistral and the poem ‘Son de negros en Cuba’, all of it with just guitar and clapping. They're lyrics a lot of people know through specific styles and I chose my way of doing them.

You take part in a congress on La Niña de los Peines in Seville. What does that now historical flamenco figure mean to you?

What cantaora doesn't have La Niña de los Peines as a reference? For women in general, she was the max. She was the only woman in her time who sang at that level; she completely vindicated women's role. I'm not much of a feminist, but having her back then, imagine what that means to us. La Niña de los Peines made it easier for all of us female cantaoras. Women have always had a harder time of it, have been more in the background, but thank God, not nowadays; men and women are at the same level. The best artist is on the bill; the one who sings the best. There are no differences.

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