2004 JEREZ FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
La Cuadra. 'Imágenes andaluzas para Carmina Burana'

For everyone

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 2nd, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Artist credits. 'Imágenes andaluzas para Carmina Burana'. ('Andalusian Images for Carmina Burana'). La Cuadra. Direction: Salvador Távora. Baile: Lalo Tejada, Marco Vargas, Francisco Carrasco. Soprano chorus: Ana María Giménez, Trinidad Pérez, Aurora Perea, María Jesús Vilches. Dancers: Magui Reguera, Viridiana Ramírez, Carolina Morales, Anabel Gavilán. Cante: Ana Peña, Kina Méndez. Guitar: Manolo Berraquero, Miguel Aragón, José del Valle. Flute, baile and percussion: Juan Romero. Monks: Víctor Contreras, Melvi Díaz. Solo soprano: Alicia Murillo. Horsemen: Jaime de la Puerta. Musical scores from 'Carmina Burana': Carl Orff. Villamarta Theater. Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz, Spain), March 2nd, 2004.
9 p.m.

...for flamencos, for the lyrical, for the dramatic, for comics, for believers, for agnostics, for clans, for communists, for socialists, for workers, for idlers, for circus people, for mechanics, for those who smell, for those who see, for those who think, for those who do not think, for the modern, for the classical, for progressives, for conservatives, for the equine, for the taurine, for those who go up, for those who go down, for those who rise, for those who fall, for alcoholics, for teetotalers, for those who move, for those who stop, for nationalists, for Andalusians, for foreigners, for mechanics, for country people, for those who love, for those who hate, for the baroque, for the simple...

'Imágenes andaluzas para Carmina Burana' has something for everyone. This dramatic flamenco "madness" aiming at emotion throws into the mixture a thousand and one elements associated with Andalusian culture. And it presents them wrapped up in a very baroque imaginary scenography which is always symmetrical, in which coexisting are black and white, the religious and the pagan, the rural and the mechanical, tradition and protest. Salvador Távora takes the intense cantata by German Carl Orff, inspired in the profane writings of medieval goliard priests, as a picture to be repainted: a touch of cante which is intertwined with lyrical voices, a heel-tapping dance over the cross, the saeta more the people's than the author's, a crucified bailaora, a Sevillian Madonna with a Moorish moon at her feet, midget monks drinking beer and wine, two horses eating flower petals, ingenious mechanical contraptions swinging angels, bulls goring bailaores, suspending them in the air, country people rebelling, waving their sickle and the Andalusian flag... The show, so overboard, so loaded down, of course, leaves no-one indifferent, as its author warned. Among the audience were those disconcerted, pleased (in part or entirely), surprised, asleep, amused, insulted... And so much emotional variety drifted into an effusive ovation, with part of the crowd on their feet.

The flamenco word

	José Luis Ortiz

The round-table at noon dealt with one of the aspects the playwright stresses in his shows, ever since the now mythical 'Quejío': flamenco lyrics. Távora, who always repeats that he is more interested in why one sings than how one sings, uses cante in 'Carmina Burana' to explanatory ends. Juan José Téllez also uses it that way in works such as 'Contrabandistas' and 'Inmigración'. The Cádiz-born journalist and writer explained that when he writes flamenco lyrics "I try to communicate; I have one of the worst ears in the world and it's difficult for me to guide myself by flamenco rhythms, but I lean on the traditional metrics of poetry that I master and which is transferable to cantes". José Luis Ortiz Nuevo, writer, actor, researcher and former director of Seville's Bienal, stated that the main motivation to write lyrics, whether they be an assignment or for pleasure, "is solitude, the feeling of grief, as if they were avoided by writing them down". The author, whose lyrics have been sung by figures such as Carmen Linares, assured that he seeks "the rhythm; if I don't feel the cadence of the rhythm, I have to stop". Both statements were completed by folklorist Manuel Naranjo, who delved into the historical transfer of popular poetry between folklore and flamenco, "the new adaptations of the anonymous lyricist legacy to the times and the performers' personality". The round-table, moderated by journalist Fermín Lobatón, was closed with an analysis of the current panorama of flamenco lyrics. Téllez noted that "Isidro Muñoz's lyrics amuse (him) - on albums such as 'Lío' by José Mercé -, I'm interested in the resort to creators' songs", to which he added that "there may be a crisis of authorship caused by the excess of professionalization; cultured authors have stopped writing for flamenco, the classical repertoire is still being pirated, which leads to no good". And he concluded by saying that "flamenco sings very interesting things, whether today or yesterday, and the repertoire remains alive". Ortiz Nuevo stressed that "nowadays, fortunately, there are a lot of people capable of writing like Isidro, who is an immense artist able to join poetic and musical feeling in the same person". He pointed out that "there is a relief, new lyrical poetry", criticized "the misinterpretation" of authorship and wished "to demand artists to adapt what they say when singing to what happens on stage". The challenges are "the new words, but without breaking down, since it's easier to sing to the railroad than to the high-speed train".

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