SEVILLE'S BIENAL DE FLAMENCO 2002. 'MARIANA PINEDA'

'Loca de amor', second part

Silvia Calado Olivo. Seville, September 16th, 2002
Photos: Javier Hurtado

Mariana Pineda. Choreography and dance: Sara Baras. Original music and orchestration: Manolo Sanlúcar. Script adaptation, director, lighting design, staging: Lluis Pasqual. Cast: Sara Baras is Mariana Pineda. José Serrano is Don Pedro. Luis Ortega is Pedrosa. Miguel Cañas is Don Fernando. Musical director: José María Bandera. Guitarists: José María Bandera and Mario Montoya. Percussion: José Motos, Diego Gómez. Cantaores: Miguel de la Tolea, Saúl Quirós. Violins: Raúl Márquez, José Amador Goñi. Viola: Viara Dimitrova. Cello: Bistacristova. Flute: Mario Pérez. Oboe-cornet: Ismael García. Clarinet: Lucas Moreno. Teatro de la Maestranza. Seville, September 16th, 2002. 9:00 p.m.

"Marianita went out for a walk and a soldier went to meet her". The popular ballad was part of Federico García Lorca's life since early childhood. And he ended up turning that woman's story into a written drama, "liberty's martyr, when she was really nothing more than a victim of her own crazed and loving heart". And that Mariana Pineda, madly in love, is the one embodied by Sara Baras in her second role as historic heroine. From 'Juana' to 'Mariana'. And again she goes all out…by virtue of a promotional agreement signed with Turismo Andaluz which stipulates the presence on stage of the underwriter to share the glory. But that's another story…

The Mariana Pineda projected by the dancer and choreographer from Cádiz, created by director Lluis Pasqual who has previously tried his hand with flamenco dance and with Lorca in Antonio Canales' 'Bernarda Alba', employs a spectacular wrapping: the stage sets, supported by geometrical lattice-work which liberates, oppresses, condenses; and Manolo Sanlúcar's music, interpreted by a live orchestra hanging suspended from on high, which not only broadens the staging, but also gives it a unifying thread, makes it flow without a break with elements that show up in important works by this composer and guitarist such as 'Tauromagia' or 'Locura de brisa y trino'. And without being strictly flamenco. Yes, now and again you can catch sounds of soleá or seguiriyas, or bulerías or rumba, but there is no soleá, seguiriya, bulerías or rumba…but rather Andalusian cadences.

Within this heady framework, the dancing is carried out on firm ground. Sara Baras is more arms and torso than ever. Sara Baras lets herself get carried away by the sounds, overusing the silky triple-layered skirt, and by the interpretation, cloying in the love scenes and affected in scenes such as the execution. Don Pedro, Pedrosa and Don Fernando get by without too much credibility. And the corps de ballet, nuns and soldiers, church and soldiers, adorn more than narrate…history's legibility is relative. Noteworthy, certain choreographic moments such as the group soleá, barely sketched while the cante is incorporated. Lacking was a more committed Mariana Pineda: despite love, the republican flag caused the person here represented to be elevated as a false martyr of liberty, and brought to the garrote while in Cádiz the first liberal Spanish constitution was being proclaimed. La Pepa, 1812. And in this remake of the heroine, the red, yellow and purple blend into the gauzy hot pink cloth of a liberator who died for love.

The premiere's reception was apocryphal. The ovation shook the theater's very foundations at the end of the performance, after a prepared 'fin de fiesta' including the appearance of the star from the orchestra pit, as she did months ago in Madrid's Teatro Real, after an improvised ending…a memorable image of Manolo Sanlúcar enveloping the girl from San Fernando por bulerías.

revista@flamenco-world.com