Manolo
Sanlúcar doubles up at the 2008 Festival
Bienal
J. J. Téllez,
September 10th, 2008
Manolo Sanlúcar
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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Manolo Sanlúcar. Like
father like son. His father - a true survivor
who loved music and poetry - died practically
singing a soleá, as he recently confided
to Fermín Lobatón from newspaper
‘El País’. He belongs to
one of those legendary clans that made life
into an artform, regardless of his actual
trade: “I've given my life over to this
culture because I've believed in it right
from the start. My father passed on that love
for Andalucía and its culture to me.
It's been my reason for living,” exclaimed
Manuel Muñoz Alcón last Monday,
at Seville's Casino and exhibition center,
surrounded by organizers, journalists, friends
and accomplices. It's clear his father's life
wasn't in vain. He was there to present his
show ‘Tu oído es más viejo
que tu abuelo’ (Your ear is older than
your grandfather), a quote chosen by his brother
Isidro as the title of the opening gala for
Seville's 15th Festival Bienal de Arte Flamenco:
“my brother Isidro was the one who was
asked to give this presentation. I know that
he's dedicated a lot of time to it, under
great pressure and with absolute commitment.
He's been incredibly thorough and professional
in his approach,” he insisted.
He's accompanied by dance
from Cristina
Hoyos– a swirl of eggplant-colored
veils covering her face as a tribute to those
made to wear a veil - Israel Galván
and Juan de Juan. And there's cante from Arcángel,
José Valencia, Luis el Zambo and Fernando
de la Morena, plus the guitars of David Carmona,
Miguel Ángel Cortés, Dani de
Morón and Manuel Morao. The rehearsals
go on till late on Wednesday, the day before
the show in Seville's Plaza de San Francisco.
There, under the plain but amazing supervision
of Isidro Sanlúcar, some last-minute
nerves were evident, voices raised in an inappropriate
way which is perhaps essential sometimes to
create tension on stage. On a stage where
Pepa Gamboa tried to impose some order, a
space was left for the Bulgarian female voice
choir, preserving all the mystery of the Bulgarian
voice, and you could already hear the instrumental
rigor of the Orquesta Joven de Andalucía:
“The highlight of the festival so far
was being able to meet this youth orchestra,
a perfect example of what Andalucía
should show in her music”, Sanlúcar
had declared at that press conference.
At the opening concert for
the Bienal he included the soleá he
wrote when he was 17, and the prayer dedicated
to Curro Romero. As the choice of music was
left up to his brother Isidro, he longed for
more recent pieces: “I don't have the
same fingers as then. I don't have the same
age as then. I'm not the same.” If he
had to sum up the milestones in his own career,
he'd give three titles: the albums ‘Tauromagia’,
‘Locura de brisa y trino’ and
‘Medea’, a composition for dance
that became the Ballet Nacional's most-performed
piece: “And bear in mind that their
repertoire included several pieces by Manuel
de Falla. But it was Medea that they've performed
most, from Australia to Russia, from Germany
to Argentina, and of course Canada and the
U.S.”
The opening night, organized
by Seville City Council and sponsored by the
Andalusian Agency for the Development of Flamenco,
was the biennial festival's tribute his life
and work, perhaps following the lead of Málaga
en Flamenco which last year celebrated the
genius of Paco de Lucía. “Paco
could have been here but he told me: don't
do that to me, I won't sleep until the day
of the show,” he confided to his friends.
In public, though, he returned
to the solemn air of mourning that soaked
the pages of his book ‘El alma compartida’
(The shared soul), published last year by
Editorial Almuzara: “Life has torn everything
away from me. And on this, the downward curve
of my life (though not of my artistic thought),
I'm grateful for life and to God for putting
me on this path, because my life has been
worthwhile.” Manolo expresses his acceptance,
although tears come to his eyes every time
he remembers his son Nano.
This won't be the only occasion
Manolo Sanlúcar comes before an audience
over the course of this Bienal de Sevilla.
On 19th September, at Teatro Lope de Vega,
he'll première his eagerly-awaited
performance focussing on the work of painter
Baldomero Resendi, entitled “la voz
del color”. In recent performances he's
already given a glimpse of some pieces: “I
met Ressendi when I worked at the tablao Las
Brujas. He was from Seville, but he went to
Sanlúcar a lot because he was related
to the Romero family who had a large winemaking
concern. There was a certain despotic air
about him with those high boots he wore. But
he had a great sensitivity. He liked flamenco
a lot. His father was a doctor and played
classical guitar. I remember he said, ‘don't
you see how all the musicians in the orchestra
come to an agreement?’ ”
Perhaps this is one of the
factors behind his long musical career that
has flirted many times with classical music.
As demonstrated in the four movements of his
‘Fantasía para guitarra y orquesta’,
his symphonic poem “Aljibe”, with
Orquesta Ciudad de Málaga, or ‘Trebujena’,
a concierto for guitar and orchestra in D
Major. The ‘Medea’ he composed
for the Ballet Nacional de España travelled
the globe with more than a thousand performances
behind it, allowing him to create ‘Soleá’
in 1998 for that same company.
Over the course of his artistic
life, with a long discography that's sold
all around the world, he's paid frequent homage
to neighboring worlds. There's a tribute to
bullfighting in the shape of 1990's ‘Tauromagia’,
or the constant references to poetry, via
the work of Rafael Alberti – he composed
the music for La Gallarda in the version that
Miguel Narros directed to open the Expo de
Sevilla in 1992, with Montserrat Caballé,
Ana Belén and José Sacristán.
And via the work of Federico García
Lorca, who inspired his ‘Locura de brisa
y trino’ with the voice of Carmen Linares
in the year 2000 - the same year that he would
receive Spain's National Music Award, the
Puerta de Alcalá and the Flamenco Hoy
award from the association of critics.
Musical director of the movie
‘Sevillanas’, directed by Carlos
Saura, he also took part in ‘Flamenco’,
by the same director. His experiments with
cinema include unusual projects such as the
soundtrack from the Japanese documentary “Viva
la Blanca Paloma”, recorded alongside
the Royal Philarmonia Orchestra that he himself
directed in London.
In September 2002 at Seville's
Festival Bienal de Arte Flamenco, he premièred
his composition ‘Mariana Pineda’,
played by José María Bandera
on guitar, as music for Sara Baras, with mise
en scène by Lluis Pasqual based on
Lorca's tragedy of the same name. At the end
of October he will probably première
his long-awaited ‘Música para
ocho monumentos’.
Manolo Sanlúcar runs
a course at Córdoba's Festival de la
Guitarra every year, usually during the month
of July, covering accompaniment for vocalists
and dance. A spin-off has been his celebrated
theory manual and method for flamenco guitar.
Right from the start he states his mission
clearly: “There's a belief, more or
less widespread, that flamenco is an informal
culture, the result of improvisation and fun,
associated with parties and 'juerga'. Whilst
I have to admit that more than one bottle
has been uncorked listening to flamenco, these
shouldn't be the credentials of our culture
- we should focus on the vast artistic content
that underlies it.”
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