2007 CAJA MADRID FLAMENCO FESTIVAL. MANUELA
CARRASCO
Divine Manuela
S.C. Madrid, February 3rd, 2007
‘Un sorbito de lo sublime’.
Baile: Manuela Carrasco, El Torombo.
Guest artist: Manuel Molina, cante and guitar. Cante:
Enrique el Extremeño, Rafael de Utrera, La Tobala,
Samara Amador, Antonio Zúñiga. Guitars:
Joaquín Amador, Pedro Sierra, Miguel Iglesias.
Percussion: José Carrasco. Choreography: Manuela
Carrasco. Music: Joaquín Amador. 15th Caja Madrid
Flamenco Festival 2007. Teatro Albéniz. Madrid,
February 3rd, 2007. 8:30 p.m.
The curtain rises. Out of the darkness
the figure of a woman appears wrapped in an embroidered
shawl. Her hair, jet black. Her eyes, huge, red-hot. Chilling.
Manuela
Carrasco. The Sevillian artist put the icing on the
cake of the Caja Madrid Festival’s fifteenth edition
with the only baile show on the bill. But ‘Un sorbito
de lo sublime’ (‘A Sip of the Sublime’)
goes beyond that, being a complete flamenco show in which
cante and toque shine equally in a fitting climate developed
in constant ‘crescendo’.
Manuela Carrasco and Manuel
Molina (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
Now then, Manuela Carrasco is out of
this world. And her mere presence seated counts as much
as the two and a half bailes she performs in this show.
The ‘kick-off’ was a taranto, dressed in flaming
red and wrapped up in the cante by a standing Enrique
el Extremeño. Halfway through the story, she
comes back to the stage to let herself be wooed by the
bulerías of troubadour Manuel Molina. And there
she remains on her throne waiting for the climax of the
soleá, which each and every member of her group
get ready for her to the max, with the guitars of Pedro
Sierra and Joaquín Amador at the head. Temperance,
power, command, contention, beauty... Words aren’t
enough to describe her, since she’s touched as if
by something divine.
And between appearances, so many little
tales of such high energy occur that there’s never
a dull moment for the spectators. The savory trio por
tangos of Pedro Sierra, La
Tobala and Samara Amador. The sober, unaccompanied
cantes by El Extremeño. The cantes abandolaos by
an inspired Tobala. The bulerías sung and danced
by a now growing Samara. And the coplas by the troubadour
from Triana, by the way, not at all fitting when they
went about defending the imprisoned Farruquito, receiving
a cold silence from the audience. But that was just a
detail to be left out. The thing is that the entire night
went off to the limit, amidst olés and applause
for a flamenco which seeks itself from within, in its
very own resources, in its most golden past in order to
be directly thrilling. Though none of it would be possible
without Manuela Carrasco.
* Manuela Carrasco returns to Madrid
with ‘Romalí’ from February 20th to
25th at the Teatro Gran Vía, within the program
Andalucía Flamenca 2007.
Photo
gallery. Festival Caja Madrid 2007.
February 3rd
Click the images to enlarge |
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| Pedro
Sierra and La Tobala (Photo: Daniel
Muñoz)
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Manuela
Carrasco and Enrique el Extremeño
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
Samara
Carrasco
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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| Samara
Carrasco
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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Manuela
Carrasco
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
Manuela
Carrasco
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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