SERRANITO. ‘SUEÑOS DE IDA Y VUELTA’
SEVILLE'S 13th BIENAL DE FLAMENCO 2004

Sharing

Silvia Calado. Seville, September 20th, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

‘Sueños de ida y vuelta’ (‘Round-trip Dreams’). Víctor Monge ‘Serranito’: guitar. Camerata Romeu: chamber orchestra conducted by Zenaida Romeu. Charo Espino and Ángel Muñoz: dancing. Laura Vital and Curro Cueto: cante. Moisés Sánchez: keyboard. Santi Ibarretxe: sax and flute. Rafael Morales: guitar. Julián Vaquero: bass and guitar. Víctor Monge Junior: percussion. Lope de Vega Theater. Seville, September 20th, 2004. 9 p.m. Seville's 13th Bienal de Flamenco 2004.

The dream comes true. Víctor Monge ‘Serranito’ finally sees materialized on stage the musical encounter between flamenco and cultured Caribbean sounds which was recorded over a year ago now on the album ‘Sueños de ida y vuelta’. With the Cuban chamber orchestra Camerata Romeu, with dance partners Ángel Muñoz and Charo Espino, plus a flamenco group, the veteran Madrilenian guitarist offered a concert of over two hours cooked up with all possible combinations: dancing with guitar, guitar with orchestra, guitar with orchestra and dancing, solo guitar, solo dancing... And in which, besides the songs from the album, there was room for other compositions from the guitarist's vast work, from which stand out the ones taken off of 'Ecos del Guadalquivir', which he presented back in the 1996 Bienal at the Maestranza Theater.

The backbone of the performance were those pieces in which the orchestra and the guitar got along well together, since there has really been work of mutually getting to know each other which favored dialogue. Explaining it the previous afternoon before the press was Zenaida Romeu, conductor of this almost entirely female orchestra: “Although we have been flamenco consumers, when you start to produce it is when you see how ignorant you are, since you have to know the music's internal rules. It's been a class for me in which I've discovered some very interesting aspects from within the music. And in the end, we've been able to express our feelings Serranito's way”. All of that was palpable in songs such as the alegrías ‘Como un sueño’, a bright song, imaginative, multi-layered... and in which even the Cuban percussionist does clapping flamenco-style. The guajira ‘En la otra orilla’, the rumba ‘Mi niña quería volar’ and ‘Recuerdos de la Alhambra’ by Francisco Tárrega also guide the ‘sharing’, as the Cubans say.

Serranito manages with ease in these domains. He makes it clear that even now, at this stage, the evolution of flamenco guitar still has its captains in the generational ‘trio’ he forms together with Paco de Lucía and Manolo Sanlúcar. The brain there is in each resounding turn, the combinations of textures, the flavor and mischief of a maestro, the playing with authority... The guitarist, who perhaps faces up to the passing of time with too much boldness when it is no longer the time for jugglery, takes the reins of this experience receiving the respect of the orchestra which converses with him. However, the ones who appear most unconcerned with the show's seriousness are the flamencos, especially the cantaores, who at no time show signs of knowing what their mission is nor do they strive to give the utmost of themselves. In fact, this attitude deadens the tone of the concert and even darkens the dance numbers which are inserted into the program, forcing the bailaores to make a real effort to solve the problem. The bailaora, with a beautiful figure, did not even have the floor microphones turned on. The bailaor danced a zapateado (heel tapping) without lights which was only sensed. Even so, both are experienced and made up for the background's shortcomings with professionalism. And in fact, nothing hindered the audience from appreciating the competence of Ángel Muñoz, María Pagés' dance partner for some years now, one of the pillars of the current generation of male dancers. The tour is being closed for next year and there will be time to polish up. For the time being, we'll take the rhythms, the sweetness and the fantasy of a sort of dream music which comes and goes with the Atlantic currents.

revista@flamenco-world.com