ESTRELLA MORENTE. PREMIERE OF ‘MUJERES’ IN MADRID

The complete performer

Silvia Calado. Madrid, May 18th, 2006

See photo gallery, by Daniel Muñoz

‘Mujeres’. Estrella Morente: cante. Montoyita, Montoyita Jr., Enrique Morente Jr.: guitar. Rondalla del Albaicín: lutes. Sacromonte Baile Group: baile. Ángel Gabarre, Antonio Carbonell: choruses. Leo Sujatovich: piano. Teatro Lara. Madrid, May 18th, 2006. 10 p.m.

Estrella Morente with Rondalla del Albaicín (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

“You’re complete!” Amidst the din of cheering and clapping, the key came glittering out. Complete. A fitting definition for Estrella Morente. “An out of the ordinary cantaora, huge singer, and moreover, she has the elegant capacity for dramatic expression, the emotional and the lyrical”. The words of Balbino Gutiérrez, Enrique Morente’s biographer, provided a detailed explanation in the middle of the show, at a moment when the curtain dropped for the cantaora to transform into a singer. Although anyone who was at the Teatro Lara, whether their name should be Carmen Linares, Bebo Valdés, Fernando Trueba, La Pelota, Juan, Pepe or María, didn’t need it to be spelled out for them at all. Estrella Morente devoured the stage in all her facets. The tonadillera, the cantaora, the singer, the bailaora... All of them knew how to give the intensity, the drama, the virtuosity, the devotion and the precise touch to a crowd already enamored and devoted a priori.

Now then. Estrella Morente is first and foremost a flamenco cantaora. Por tangos, por tarantas (oh, how delightful), por bulerías... the artist reaches her greatest splendor. Even her crossovers make sense when she makes them flamenco, when ‘Volver’ and ‘La noche de mi amor’ turn into bulerías, when they’re soaked in quejío, pellizco and jondo rhythm. Not in vain does the cantaora admit, for example, having gotten to know Carlos Gardel’s tango not directly, but rather in a flamenco version done by Chano Lobato. Of course she has the faculties, age and freedom to try to be a singer of Buenos Aires tangos (they’re “in”, by the way, among flamencos). She has the ability to do so with dignity. And she proved so live, accompanied on piano by Leo Sujatovich. But it isn’t what suits her best.

Photo gallery. Estrella Morente. Premiere of 'Mujeres' in Madrid Click the images to enlarge
Estrella Morente. Premiere of 'Mujeres' in Madrid (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)	Estrella Morente. Premiere of 'Mujeres' in Madrid (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)	Estrella Morente. Premiere of 'Mujeres' in Madrid (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

As a flamenca or even as a Spaniard, if we extend the angle to the zambra and the copla, Estrella Morente is dazzling. Although she isn’t explicitly included as a woman paid tribute to on the album, she is reminiscent of the descriptions which are preserved of Pastora Imperio, who, by the way, premiered ‘El amor brujo’ on the same stage of this outstanding Madrilenian theater in 1917. Jacinto Benavente said of her that she was “the sculpture of a bonfire”. And the young Granada-born artist also has a great deal of fire, of outburst. Singing and dancing por tangos, amidst the big women of the group from the caves of Sacromonte, she sets off sparks. Just like when she plays the role of Mari Cruz, the young lass from the Santa Cruz quarter with her bare shoulders and countenance as if from another era, to sound played for her by old-time lute players.

One piece might be missing for her really to be not a performer but rather a complete artist: creation. But she’s sincere... and young. And as she admitted in a recent interview with this publication, she’s aware that “I’m still not even a trace of what I want to be”.

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