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2006 SUMA FLAMENCA FESTIVAL. CARMEN LINARES
Grand finale
Silvia Calado. Madrid, June 2006
‘Falla y Lorca’. Carmen
Linares: cante. Eos Quartet: classical guitars.
José Manuel León, Eduardo Pacheco: flamenco
guitars. Tino di Geraldo: percussion. Martín García:
contrabass. 2006 Suma Flamenca Festival. Teatro Albéniz.
Madrid, June 11th, 2006. 7 p.m.
The streets of Madrid were deserted. Scarcely a few minutes
earlier, Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal had wrapped up
his second triumph at Roland Garros and thousands of people
had their eyes glued to their TV screens. It seemed highly
unlikely that on that Sunday at seven o’clock in the
evening flamenco would bring together some one thousand people.
But not impossible. Carmen Linares was received by nearly
a full house at the Teatro Albéniz. And the thing is
that the occasion called for it. On the one hand, because
she was premiering a new version of her already fruitful encounter
with ‘Falla y Lorca’. On the other hand, because
she was closing the first edition of Festival
Suma Flamenca 2006, which has left behind a succulent
trail of cante, baile and toque performances at many venues
in Madrid.
Carmen Linares Eos Quartet (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz)
The novelty. Carmen Linares had come to contribute the festival’s
only ‘premiere’. She took back up poet Federico
García Lorca and composer Manuel de Falla, but this
time accompanied by a classical guitar quartet. With such
silky backing, the Jaén-born cantaora made her appearance
standing, doing scarcely a few touches of ‘El amor brujo’.
Just as she came in, wearing a bright red night dress, she
disappeared. Her absence was prolonged more than what was
desirable, while the guitarists took advantage to warm up
the ambience with ‘La danza del fuego’. Her voice
returned just to whisper to the “will-o’-the-wisp”.
She leaves again. And finally she returns to take a seat and
let her rusty voice rest. “Come on, Carmen!”.
That’s the way the crowd wanted to see her, prevailing
amidst the four guitars, with both hands over her bosom and
oozing cante. From ‘Café de Chinitas’ to
the ‘zéjel’ of the three morels, from the
lullaby ‘Galapaguito’ to ‘Anda, jaleo!’.
Elegance, beauty, mastery.
The classical. After the intermission, ‘the lady of
cante’ appeared accompanied by her flamenco group to
go over the repertoire of her latest album, ‘Un
ramito de locura’. And it was this part of the show
- the simple, the classical, the flamenco - which drove the
diverse crowd mad. Carmen Linares continued with her progression,
increasingly upwards. She kicked off by adding up all of her
band’s energy: with the choruses, guitars, percussions
and contrabass. Energetic romera. She steered the route from
the lands of Cádiz towards inland Andalusia. Lucena
cantes and rondeña. Spine-tingling. An imaginative
musical introduction by José Manuel León starts
‘Milonga del forastero’, space in which the limits
are blurred between cantaora and singer, between flamenco
and music. Guitars, percussions and contrabass also backed
her in the Triana soleares, those earthquake ones attributed
to a disciple of Silverio Franconetti. The taranta was suitable
for the solitude of the guitar. Unadorned cante and toque.
Straight to the soul. The party would come later, through
bulerías, prolonged bulerías in which everyone,
one by one, came out with flying colors and celebrated that
cantaora Carmen Linares also won.
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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