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2004 JEREZ FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
Carmen Cortés. 'La Celestina'
Literature
Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 6th, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Artist credits. 'La Celestina'. Celestina: Carmen Cortés.
Areusa: Trinidad Artíguez. Melibea: Natalia Ferrándiz. Calixto:
Isaac de los Reyes. Pármeno: Nino de los Reyes. Sempronio: Álvaro
Paños. Choreography: Carmen Cortés. Dramatic art, direction, scenography,
wardrobe: Gerardo Vera. Music: Gerardo Núñez, Juan Manuel Alonso.
Villamarta Theater. Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz, Spain), March 6th, 2004.
9 p.m.
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Carmen Cortés |
Literary classics are a constant inspiration for flamenco. The eighth edition
of the Jerez Festival gives a good account of it. A few days ago the Spanish Ballet
of Murcia put the myth of Penelope into motion. Tomorrow the New Spanish Ballet
will display its version of Romeo and Juliet. Last night Carmen
Cortés put herself in the shoes of La Celestina, the procuress whose
story was written in the Middle Ages by Fernando de Rojas. All of these dramatic
flamenco ballets face common difficulties: for the adaptation to make the story
understandable, for the drama and dancing to coexist in harmony, for the text
to be treated respectfully, both if it is used as inspiration and if it is faithful
to the script... In the case of the show which has already premiered at the Jerez
bullring, the legibility is - like everything in life - relative. The story begins
its narration from the present in a dreary rehearsal room. The instructor discovers
the book 'La Celestina' in a bag left behind by a student, begins to read it out
loud and turns into its main character, with her pupils as the characters in the
story: Calixto, Melibea, Areusa, Pármeno and Sempronio.
There were those who came out convinced that if you don't know the book, you
don't understand the show. However, the explicit isn't necessarily positive; and
certainly, the work directed and dramatized by Gerardo Vera - who has already
made this classic into a film - could also be read as the communication of universal
concepts contained in the original: conspiracy, deceit, evil, love, the passing
of time, vice, flesh, greed, death. The dancing and the drama take care of getting
them across and linking them. It could be said that how they join both styles
is not an example of easy or clumsy obviousness. Carmen Cortés relies only
on her temperament and her character to square up a role that fits her like a
glove. And she resolves it more with a facial gesture, a finishing touch of the
feet or an arm pose than with interpretative tricks. The other five characters
perform their roles with correct dancing, more Apollonian, in distant relationships
(for two, three, solo). Nothing is done either choreographically or dramatically
to avoid the lifeless, mushy scenes of love and sex.
Two elements are fundamental for the show to flow: music and scenography. The
music, written by guitarist Gerardo
Núñez and composer Juan Manuel Alonso, fulfills the task of
providing the work with atmosphere, of emphasizing the message of each scene,
of creating tension and intention. It draws on flamenco - the scales of the jerezano
are unmistakable -, on the classical renewed with a certain medieval air, and
on noises, walking on structures such as the bulería, the soleá
and the seguiriya. Guitars, basses, drums, various percussions, owls, leaks...
contribute to shaping the compositions. The scenography seeks to give the story
a context and esthetics, from the urban garage of the present to the nocturnal
countryside, with settings more abstract than concrete along the way. It makes
use of the transparent background to play with the depth and the coexistence of
different scenes, smoke, lights, mysterious translucent window screens which fall
from the sky in a way striving for effect and establish hidden, mysterious, sensual
spaces. The fact is that this new approach by Carmen Cortés to dramatic
ballet does the job and passes with flying colors. The shows of this kind seen
so far at the festival had not set a very high level; comparisons are hateful,
but inevitable. And it is obvious that this show is, of course, at a very superior
level, despite its falls into clichés and its dense rhythm, details which
are ignored in view of so many moments of brilliance.
Carmen Cortés Company
Opportunities and projects
Yes, of course, many other things happened throughout the day. At noon at Bodega
de San Ginés, architect Manuel Collado presented the 'macro project' of
Flamenco City, a future manifold cultural center in which a flamenco auditorium,
museum and college will coexist. The center, still in the design phase, will be
located in a new building in the city's historical quarter, at a cost - for the
time being - of twenty-five million euros. In the afternoon, cante in pure form
returned to the Bullfighting Museum, with Sevillian cantaor José de la
Tomasa. At midnight, bailaora Carmelilla Montoya appeared at Sala La Compañía
with a top-notch group including El Extremeño, Juan José Amador,
Angelilla and Lucía Montoya... This performance smacked of return, following
a season in which the bailaora has been more centered on teaching than live shows.
"Jerez made a place for me when I was just fourteen years old and it has
given me another chance as a solo bailaora". So be it.
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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