2005 JEREZ FESTIVAL. SPANISH NATIONAL BALLET: ‘EL LOCO’

A cry for freedom

Silvia Calado. Jerez, February 25th, 2005

Spanish National Ballet (BNE): ‘El Loco’. Original idea, libretto and stage direction: Paco López. Choreography: Javier Latorre. Music: Manuel de Falla, Mauricio Sotelo, Cañizares. Félix el Loco: Christian Lozano. Tamara Karsavina, the Miller's Wife, the White Lady: Tamara López. Massine, the Miller, Specter: Óscar Jiménez. Diaghilev, the Corregidor (Magistrate), Specter: Francisco J. Velasco. The Old Bailaor, Specter: Primitivo Daza. Dance corps: Spanish National Ballet. Villamarta Theater, 9 p.m. Gerardo Núñez: ‘Andando el tiempo’. Gerardo Núñez (guitar), Pablo Martín (contrabass), Cepillo (percussion). Bodega Los Apóstoles, midnight.

Spanish National Ballet (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The 2005 Jerez Festival kicked off with an explicit vindication of artistic freedom. María del Mar Moreno, Israel Galván, Gerardo Núñez and Mercedes Ruiz, each in their own way, put it forward in a round-table at Bodega de San Ginés. María del Mar Moreno, artistic director and star of Jerez Puro, stressed that the show “gives artistic freedom to each person taking part in it”, whether it be Moraíto Chico, Juana la del Pipa or Antonio Malena, with whom she co-directs the show. Moreover, the bailaora called for “respect for what each one feels”. Israel Galván - who presents ‘La edad de oro’ at Sala La Compañía with Fernando Terremoto and Alfredo Lagos - endorsed said way of thinking, tossing up ideas in the air such as “the performer's personality can't be sacrificed just because the system has to be a certain way”. Mercedes Ruiz also coincided with her bailaor colleagues, defending that “we do flamenco from where we feel it, so who can measure their purity?”. Gerardo Núñez specifically demythologized concepts like ‘purity’ and ‘duende’ (magic) before concluding that “flamenco is a living artform that feeds on everything the artist likes”. And he showed so at the late-night concert he offered in the welcoming setting of Bodega de Los Apóstoles. The repertoire of his new album ‘Andando el tiempo’, which he went over flanked by the contrabass and box drum, reveals him to be a flying musician... at heights which might go unnoticed here in his homeland, but not on the international jazz and world music circuit.

A high degree of freedom is present in ‘El Loco’, the show which the Spanish National Ballet dedicates to a historical figure of flamenco, but one paid little attention: Félix el Loco. With the overwhelming display of the public company's own means, the dramatic story is told of the Sevillian bailaor who went mad in London. He went there from a singing café in Seville hired by Diaghilev to put together the Miller's farruca for the version of ‘The Three-Cornered Hat’ that his Russian ballets would do. And he found out there that it would not be he, but rather Massine, who would do the piece. The BNE's show develops the entire story around the loss of sanity caused by the lead character's isolation and exclusion in a strange, hostile environment. Script, choreography, interpretation, music, stage design, wardrobe... are impeccably intertwined to provide sense to a story in which reality is quite often sifted through insanity.

	Gerardo Núñez Trio (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

It is thus reflected especially in the convergence of the music by Mauricio Sotelo with the baile of Félix el Loco, magnificently performed by Christian Lozano. Other parts, the realistic ones, limit themselves to flamenco, like the singing café number; or to ballet, like in the number of the academy in London...; or that ‘typical Spanish’ caricature of the version that the famous Russian company did of the work by Manuel de Falla. Nor is irony missing towards the affectation in ballet and the ‘folklorization’ of what is Spanish, while the tributes to the bases of flamenco dancing follow one after another (too bad for the staff musicians). Esther Jurado stars in a lovely Pastora-style cantiña, another couple pays tribute to Rosario and Antonio, while the tribute to Antonio Gades via farruca is lasting. All of it fits smoothly together in the show, whose dynamism is sacrificed towards the end in favor of the evolution of the lead character's mental disease. The audience bowed to this show which breathes new life into the repertoire of the BNE, which had not done any works of such magnitude since the revival of ‘Fuenteovejuna’.

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