Special Feature. On the ‘Dulce Estrella’
Tour by Estrella Morente & Dulce Pontes
Estrella Morente,
Dulce Pontes...
and ‘fadenco’
Silvia Calado. Madrid, June 16th, 2008
‘Dulce Estrella’.
Spain Tour Summer 2008
Estrella
Morente and Dulce Pontes join flamenco and fado in
a single voice. It would be something like inventing ‘fadenco’,
a word coined half jokingly by the Portuguese singer.
‘Dulce Estrella’ is the title of the show
with which they materialize “this concert with one
voice that we can build between the two of us, a journey
through music, through water, through soul and through
the magic we have in common”. Expo Zaragoza and
Seville’s Bienal are the setting for this eleven-concert
tour which will make the Iberian Peninsula a single musical
territory from July to September.
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Estrella Morente and
Dulce Pontes
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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Neither flamenco, nor fado, but rather
‘fadenco’. Dulce Pontes and Estrella Morente
speak of unity in ‘Dulce Estrella’. As the
Portuguese singer explains, “it’s a very nice
adventure of fellowship”. One elaborates that it’s
“more than a two-person concert”. The other,
that “it feeds on our feeling”. And although
they don’t want to specify anything about the repertoire
yet, they do let on that “it isn’t going to
be the obvious thing of putting flamenco and fado side
by side, which will be present in a pure and simple way”.
Since to Estrella Morente “musical notes have neither
race nor color”. So it might be true that “we’re
going to sing unexpected things”.
If they are pressed a bit, they release
some information little by little: “There’ll
be a score by Astor Piazzolla, whom we love”. But
they also reveal references to “grandiose”
maestras of both genres such as Amália Rodrigues
and Lola Flores. And the concert, moreover, “will
have an appearance by Porrina
de Badajoz, with his half-Portuguese tongue”.
At the back, they’ll be supported by traditional
instrumentation from both genres, especially strings and
percussions: “We’re surrounding ourselves
with people with a lot of intensity. And new options are
arising every day”. It’s a matter of “everything
flowing with inertia, not wanting to do a key song which
is Portuguese or which goes por bulerías”.
And the thing is that, as Pontes adds, “there are
infinite musical possibilities, even from flamenco, even
from fado. And there can be a match, since those types
of music from the soul are sisters. Every kind of music
from the soul comes from the same mother. They’re
different ways of getting it across”.
Dulce Pontes and Estrella
Morente (Photo Daniel Muñoz)
Child’s play... and singing
They are convinced that the common denominator
between the two of them comes from within. And therefore,
it isn’t subject to guidelines: “It’s
been something really natural, really spontaneous, from
under our skin, from dreaming it up together, like two
little girls who are playing, we wanted to build something
to have a good time and express our feeling. It isn’t
prepared, but rather we sing really naturally”,
Pontes explains. To which her partner in this adventure
adds that “what unites us is the concept of wanting
to enjoy our music, despite the fact that each of us has
her career. Dulce delights us non-stop. I’m involved
in different jobs. And we do it because we need to get
together and join desire, excitement, in this so revolutionized...
and before, so revolutionary society. If you deliver something
to people for nothing, people have to respond. We just
want to express our admiration for music”.
And the visible mutual admiration. In
public, Estrella Morente doesn’t call the fado singer
anything but “maestra”, beside whom she claims
she is taking “giant steps” in her artistic
career. And she emphasizes that for her it is “a
great pleasure to make my dream come true of approaching
fado by the hand of a maestra who is continually delighting
us”. Music which, in her own words, “my father
has taught me to revere and love like our own music”.
Not in vain does she say that she identifies it with “the
lutes and mandolins of Granada’s Albaicín
when I listen to it in Lisbon”.
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Estrella Morente
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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Dulce Pontes doesn’t skimp on compliments
for the cantaora: “I like everything about her;
she’s an exciting woman, her simple way, her humility,
her total openness to learning, with all her personality...
And the way she pushes her ego back to the middle ground;
that’s important when you try to forge a union.
But that’s natural in her and in me, too”.
She also thinks that “she’s an incredible
performer, she has incredible strength on stage which
I identify with a lot, we’re a lot like a Moor”.
And she ends up admitting that they’re very similar,
even in details like this one: “Even losing cell
phones; we can’t call each other now, neither her,
me, nor me, her”.
Quejío and nostalgia
And just like Dulce and Estrella, fado
and flamenco also have common traits. According to the
Portuguese singer, “flamenco and fado have magic
in common, a state of the soul, a state of nakedness,
an inner state, an exercise in sublimation”. The
singer emphasizes that “if we analyze them musically,
they have totally different structures but they have common
ties in the soul”. And she judges: “Flamenco
can’t be learned and nor can fado”.
With this union of souls, they go beyond
music. And they want to see Spain and Portugal as what
they once were. Dulce Pontes affirms that “I never
felt that business about Spain and Portugal being back-to-back;
that’s from the time of the Philips”. To which
Estrella adds: “We’re really close. We used
to be a united territory, but due to political reasons
we’re now back-to-back”. Now ‘Dulce
Estrella’ will cause them to be not close, not even
face-to-face, but rather joined in an embrace.
Besides acting as a cantaor and creator,
Enrique Morente acts as an orchestra conductor, but instead
of with a baton, with looks. Those who don’t catch
it are left out. And the only ones entirely inside were
percussionist Bandolero and guitarist David Cerreduela,
who carried the weight and the pace in this preview of
what promises to be the live version of ‘Pablo de
Málaga’. Which will be incredible when it
manages to square off its lineup, when it gets rid of
absolutely unfavorable commitments - such as that of the
so-called ‘bailaor’ Popo - and when everyone
and everything, including the machines, perform at the
same level of boldness as the cantaor (which occurs on
the album). Even so, we have to congratulate everyone
because Morente’s new revolt is here, with his humble,
eternal promise that “I’ll make a better album
for you soon”.
Estrella
Morente & Dulce Pontes, ‘Dulce Estrella’
Spain Tour Summer 2008
JULY
Friday the 11th
Zaragoza
Expo 2008 Amphitheater
Wednesday the 16th
Córdoba
Teatro Axerquía
2008 Guitar Festival
Friday the 18th
Lorca (Murcia)
Fortaleza del Sol, Espirelia
Tuesday the 22nd
Madrid
Patio del Conde Duque
Veranos de la Villa 2008
Wednesday the 23rd
Valladolid
Auditorio Miguel Delibes
Saturday the 26th
Cádiz
Castillo de San Sebastián
Wednesday the 30th
Pamplona
Auditorio Baluarte
AUGUST
Saturday the 2nd
La Granja (Segovia)
La Granja International Festival
Monday the 4th
Perelada (Girona)
Castillo de Perelada • 2008 Perelada
Festival
Tuesday the 12th
Pontevedra
Plaza de la Herrería
SEPTEMBER
Saturday the 13th
Seville
Auditorio Rocío Jurado • Bienal
de Flamenco 2008
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