SPECIAL FEATURE. DORANTES PRESENTS ‘CONVIVENCIAS’
IN MADRID
The art of sharing
S.C. Madrid, September 9th, 2009
‘Convivencias’. David
Peña ‘Dorantes’: piano, music,
artistic director. Andalusia Philharmonic Orchestra: conductor,
Javier Yera. El Lebrijano: cante. Alba Molina: cante. Pedro
María Peña: guitar. Carles Benavent: bass.
Jorge Pardo: sax, flute. Tino di Geraldo: percussion. Pastora
Galván: baile. Tete Peña: box drum. Los Mellis:
clapping and choruses. Teatro Coliseum. Madrid, September
9th to 30th, 2009
Cohabiting is possible. And so is being
free. That’s how types of music like flamenco originated.
That’s how flamenco continues to advance. But it normally
does so by adding up individual paths which run parallel
to one another. Perhaps one day, the line might stray scarcely
a few degrees and cross with another… and that one,
in turn, with another. Then the exchange is collective and
the sum turns into multiplication and a step turns into
a journey. Something like that is what Dorantes
has us see in ‘Convivencias’. And the thing
is that not only does he show how great his ‘Orobroy’
is performed with a philharmonic orchestra, but also how
many doors were opened by El Lebrijano, how free Pardo,
Benavent and Di Geraldo are, how a cantaora’s daughter
has become a singer and how a bailaora who was going to
be traditional is able to materialize a contemporary score.
The concert, which stops off at the Teatro
Coliseum in Madrid until the end of this month, captures
it all in two blocks. The first one is something like a
stroll through an apartment building in which, like at ‘13
Rue del Percebe’, the walls are missing. Knock knock,
may I come in? The pianist is alone at 1-A, playing intimately
around in his musical universe. Shortly thereafter, the
three upstairs neighbors come down. And the trio of Jorge
Pardo, Carles Benavent and Tino di Geraldo, our trio,
joins the session in an overwhelmingly natural way, opening
spaces in the conversation so that everyone speaks upon
an invisible bulería beat. The host leaves them the
keys there and lets them make themselves entirely at home.
What good music always. And what’s going on in the
attic? There, a string quartet is performing a score by
Dorantes, a beautiful delirium which the next-door neighbor
has come to embody. Pastora
Galván, with baggy trousers, dances ‘French-style’,
more and more unpredictable… and therefore, more and
more interesting.
Dorantes, meanwhile, receives a friend.
Alba Molina plays at being an old-time singer and standing,
wearing a princess’s dress, whispers to him a ballad
translated by the unmistakable throat of the Montoya women.
Two houses past them, Uncle Juan has sat down together with
his nephew the guitarist, Pedro María; yeah, the
guy on the piano’s brother. And side by side, they
refresh our memory with ‘En el soto’ - that’s
to say, ‘Truena’ - that song which is now a
model (or should be) of how traditional cante can be restructured
and go beyond, without losing its essence. El
Lebrijano’s voice is tremendous. It’s hypnotic
to follow the line traced by his hand depending on the harmony
of the music; the whole is always exciting. With his voice
now warmed up, why not change the guitar to piano in the
accompaniment of a seguiriya, why not feel it and fight
it, why not soften its dramatic art according to the ebony
and ivory. ‘Danza de las sombras’, illustrated
by the bailaora’s odd, forceful baile, topped off
the first part. Too lengthy? Somewhat unconnected? Perhaps.
But what good music and what nice cohabitation.
No sooner did ‘Sur’ appear
when the back curtain was raised in order to invite no less
than an orchestra to the encounter. And it has stunning
effect on the crowd. The scores by Dorantes go beyond their
dimensions and are confirmed as panoramic cross-border music,
worthy of a scene by Zhang Yimou. They amaze. And even more
so when you can sense that they aren’t closed, compact
pieces, but rather open spaces which besides all the instruments
of the philharmonic, continue to accept the guests’
contributions. ‘Todo es de color’ by Lole and
Manuel performed by Alba Molina links up with the spectacular
piece ‘Orobroy’.
‘Semblanza de un río’ is a fluent one-to-one
between the piano and the orchestra… fluent and expressive,
just like the very gentle ‘Batir de alas’...
that invitation to fly. And the final touch on the dialogue,
of crossing, of cohabiting, is provided by them together
with ‘Caravana de los zincalí’, where
it’s all embracing, multiplication and enjoyment.
Two doubts come up. One, if the public will know how to
appreciate this show offered to it with so much quality
and musical generosity. And two, what would happen if Dorantes
were of different roots, from another house, another street,
another city, another country.
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