SEVILLE’S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO. INAUGURAL GALA

Andalusia, flamenco and Andalusia

Silvia Calado. Seville, September 13th, 2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Bienal de Sevilla 2006. Full program / Ticket sales

‘Andalucía, el flamenco y la humanidad’. Cante: El Pele, Capullo de Jerez, Carmen Linares, Marina Heredia, Fernando de la Morena, Segundo Falcón, Rocío Bazán, La Tremendita, María José Pérez, Guillermo Cano. Baile: Belén Maya, Rafaela Carrasco, Rocío Molina, dance corps. Guitar: Alfredo Lagos, Miguel Ochando, Juan Carlos Romero, Emilio Maya, Paco Cruzado, Chaparro, Paco Javier Jimeno. Director: Mario Maya. Seville’s 14th Bienal de Flamenco. Teatro Lope de Vega. Seville, September 13th, 2006. 10 p.m.

Rafaela Carrasco (Photo: Luis Castilla)

The Expo Casino got all dressed up. Conjuring up the splendor of days gone by, with a new coat of paint, the marble flooring polished up, with all the lamps turned on and acting as an entrance hall to the stalls for the formal audience. Authorities, artists and a pinch of the everyday crowd jam-packed the Teatro Lope de Vega, collaborating in the presentation of the fourteenth edition of the top flamenco festival, the festival of festivals. Left behind was the displeasure of assuming that besides not having the Teatro de la Maestranza, the Alcázar courtyard would not be the stage of the inauguration, either. And it was nearly a stroke of luck, since the rain did not cooperate last night.

The red velvet curtain was raised to a gala prepared by Mario Maya devoted entirely to andalucismo. And it wasn’t an easy task to justify on stage the controversial – for being costly – commemorative album which the Andalusian Agency for the Development of Flamenco had done for the latest regional event. The thing consisted of singing in every style possible the region’s hymn, now then, performed by top artists. And that’s what the gala was about. To make such a thick dish easier to swallow, what better than to have the most luxurious lineup possible. And up there on stage was from El Pele to Carmen Linares, from Joaquín Grilo to Belén Maya, from Juan Carlos Romero to Miguel Ochando... going all out despite the constrained script.

Throughout the ten numbers, a journey around the map of Andalusia was traced, picking out the flamenco province by province. From Almería, the cantes mineros. From Cádiz, the bulerías de Jerez. From Málaga, the rondeña. From Seville, the soleá de Triana. From Granada, the tangos del Albaycín. From Jaén, the cantes mineros. From Córdoba, the fandangos de Lucena. And from Huelva, the fandango de Alosno. The course had moments of art. The dose of bulerías sung by Capullo and danced by Joaquín Grilo grabbed the first ovation. The most intense one, however, went to the duo of El Pele and Rafaela Carrasco – wearing trousers, this time – to the sound of fandangos de Lucena. And certainly to be highlighted is Marina Heredia, who should be clamored for by stages and recording studios, full of voice and beauty. She sang tangos granadinos to the baile of Belén Maya, who left nobody indifferent either in this song or in the minero opening wearing a white bata de cola.

The transitions were taken care of by the dance corps, who besides dancing the dynamic choreographies with a ‘Maya’ trademark, saw to moving around on stage the two mobile bleachers in order to make the entrances and exits painless of such an extensive group of artists. The bits of packaged music used as a transition between hymns seemed somewhat out of place, and perhaps the added appendix of the choral choreography ‘Dos barrios. Brooklin y Las Tres Mil’, recovered from ‘Un, dos, tres, faaaa’, which the choreographer put together for the now-extinct Flamenco Center for Performing Arts Studies. Everything was counteracted, however, by the already pre-titled ‘Apoteosis final’, a grand finale with the hymn sung by each and every one of the artists present, including the gang of verdiales and the children’s choir from Almonte, which brought out the patriot in more than one onlooker.

Carmen Linares (Photo: Luis Castilla)

“The white and green flag
returns after centuries of war
to say peace and hope
under the sun of our land.

Andalusians, rise up!
Ask for land and freedom!
May Spain and Mankind
be for a free Andalusia.

We Andalusians want
to be what we were once more
men of light who gave
men’s souls to men”.

(Blas Infante)

* The inaugural gala ‘Andalucía, el flamenco y la humanidad’ is also at the Teatro Lope de Vega on September 14th, 2006 at 9 p.m. (substituting ‘Romancero gitano’ by the Andalusian Flamenco Ballet)

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