7th FLAMENCO PA’ TOS FESTIVAL 2006
SERRANITO/ CARMEN LINARES/ MERCHE ESMERALDA

With heart

Silvia Calado. Madrid, June 23rd, 2006

Online video / Photo gallery

7th Flamenco pa’Tos Festival. Serranito: guitar. Moisés Sánchez: keyboard. Víctor Monge: box drum/ Carmen Linares: cante. Miguel Ángel Cortés: guitar. Antonio Coronel: percussion. Ana María and Ángel González: choruses and clapping / Merche Esmeralda: baile. Guadiana and Charo Manzano: cante. David Cerreduela: guitar. Colegio de Médicos. Madrid, June 23rd, 2006. 9 p.m.

	Merche Esmeralda (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Nobody but Merche Esmeralda could better sum up the spirit of the Flamenco pa’ Tos Festival. Following her impressive performance, which ended the closing threesome, she quieted the applause, raised her voice and uttered words which remained as fixed in the crowd’s mind as her seguiriya and soleá. This is what she said. “I hadn’t danced for a long time. I’ve been doing so sporadically over the past few months. And I can assure you that no applause has reached my heart as much as this one. This work has to continue, since while we’re here having a good time, a lot of children are suffering tonight. I’m therefore very happy to find myself with all of you tonight”. The applause, the last applause, was to the beat... as is the custom in the bailaora’s native land of Seville.

She alluded to the ways of dancing there in her two appearances. The first one, the seguiriya with a shawl. She sketched it with character, brimming over with beauty and womanhood. She danced powerfully, without forgetting any of the weapons she wields, from her regard to her winged hands, from her hips to her accurate footwork. And Guadiana mollycoddling her. Together with Charo Manzano, the two cantaores offered an interlude por tangos, which was followed by the immense soleá. Merche Esmeralda reminded us once more that you can make history in this artform by highlighting tradition and sprinkling it with hefty doses of personality. She has already nearly won the battle with her look, with that beautiful posing on a rush-bottomed chair, the beginning and end of that baile-journey. She becomes a queen, a goddess who seems to levitate. And just as well hardly stretching out her arms as doing her spectacular cambré. The whole time, she orders the group to follow her precisely in every season and every emotion along the way. And they all enjoy her and she enjoys herself, feline, pretty... and a bit joking when the bulería appears.

Merche Esmeralda (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Speaking of bulerías. It was a brave batch of bulerías which was marked by Carmen Linares. She carried out her entire performance in the tone of an anthology, remembering women with history. La Niña de los Peines, La Perla, La Repompa... all of them were with her until the tremendous batch por bulerías. She did them calm, she did them with feeling, she did them inwards and really outgoing. And she did them all well. Though the truth is that there isn’t a cante ‘the lady of cante’ can’t work out masterfully. There were cantiñas, cartageneras, soleares, Granada tangos and bulerías. Styles which were all accompanied intelligently and with feeling by Granada-born guitarist Miguel Ángel Cortés, who she re-encountered much to the crowd’s satisfaction. And the thing is that this guitarist is constantly growing both solo and accompanying cante, as he already proved several days ago at this very festival when it was his turn to present the songs off his new album, ‘Bordón de trapo’, and immediately afterwards play for Arcángel.

Photo gallery . Flamenco Pa' tos Click the images to enlarge
Merche Esmeralda (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)	Carmen Linares (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)	Carmen Linares (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
Carmen Linares' group (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)	Merche Esmeralda (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)	Carmen Linares (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The solo guitar of the night was that of Víctor Monge ‘Serranito’, who was one of the pillars of modern toque. The Madrilenian guitarist chose several pieces from his repertoire, performed with the accompaniment of a keyboard and box drum, although the trio harmony was missed. Following the introduction through soleá airs, Víctor Monge chose the taranta ‘Cazorla’, the song ‘Dani’, the alegrías ‘Como un sueño’ and that potpourri entitled ‘Agua, fuego, tierra, aire’. He played above his possibilities at all times, leaving aside that flavor and that calm characteristic of veterans, in favor of a risky virtuosity not always worked out successfully. Even so, the crowd was reached by the performance of a Serranito who, like all the artists gathered at this festival, put all his heart into it up on stage.

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