Obituary. Bernarda de Utrera (1926-2009)
Bernarda goes back to Fernanda
Silvia Calado/ Flamenco-world.com, October 28th, 2009
Bernarda Jiménez Peña
was a girl when Edgar Neville filmed her for the movie ‘Duende
y misterio del flamenco’ (1952) on the farm of bullfighter
Juan Belmonte. She was wearing simple clothes and had a
humble country air about her. The film’s narrator
even pointed out that she might not have been photogenic,
but that in her cante there was “the purest source”
of soleares, inherited from the house of her grandfather
Pinini. That may have been one of the few moments in her
career when she was more prominent in the limelight than
her sister Fernanda, who she formed a pair with which, as
journalist Fermín Lobatón remarked, “represented
one of flamenco’s unavoidable references in the 20th
century”.
Always beside her sister, Bernarda
de Utrera began her professional career at the Tablao
Zambra in Madrid, shortly thereafter winning an award at
the National Contest of Córdoba in 1957 and performing
at the World’s Fair in New York in 1964. She returned
to the capital and to plush tablaos like El Duende, until
she decided to return to Utrera in the seventies. From then
on, the cantaora’s hometown would be her center of
operations, now focusing her career on summer festivals,
peñas and occasional album recordings and TV appearances.
Highlighting those appearances was the one on the television
series ‘Rito y geografía del cante’,
which recorded her unmistakable bulerías accompanied
on toque by Diego del Gastor, besides seguiriyas, tientos
and fandangos. Another highlight is the double album which
the two sisters recorded together in Paris in 1987 which
won the Grand Prize of the French Record Academy.
It took her longer to record solo. She
did so for the first time in 1999 with ‘Bernarda ahora’.
And four years later, she again recorded her huge cante
with the label Palo Nuevo, which no longer exists. The album,
published in a book format, was simply called ‘A Fernanda’.
“With all my affection and admiration”, she
wrote on the back cover, paying a definitive tribute to
her other half in life and in cante. By then, Fernanda was
seriously ill and would spend several more years convalescing
until her death three years ago. The public appearances
by Bernarda – who won the Medal of Andalusia, that
of Work Merit and that of Fine Arts Gold – became
few and far between and she always, always dedicated her
recitals to her personally. One of the last and most outstanding
ones was the one she offered at the beautiful Patio de la
Montería of the Reales Alcázares in Seville
at the 2002 Bienal de Flamenco. And that night in September,
which she shared with La Paquera, she sang to La Giralda
por soleares. And this is how I told it:
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“The
words flamenco, Utrera, cante, soleá, bulería…
are linked to me myself like my hands and my legs"
Bernarda de Utrera
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“Bernarda comes in calling for
applause for her absent other half Fernanda, pouring out
grief. Dressed in blue, her eyes saddened, she comes apologizing
for being nervous, like a beginner, pouring out her heart...
the latter drowning out the traces of age. Solearera, since
she later stood out por bulerías, "Mercé
La Serneta was the one who sang it the best, what a good
school she’s left, oh what gypsy cante, Fernanda and
Bernarda, we take it by the hand". Fandanguera, like
no other. Buleriera, the way it’s understood in the
countryside... and her exhausted age and her sketched little
kick and her living history. Genuflection”.
Bernarda passed away in Utrera at the age
of 82 on October 28th, 2009. May she rest in peace…
next to Fernanda.
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