SPECIAL FEATURE. FERNANDA DE UTRERA (1923-2006)

A cry from heaven through soleá

Carlos Sánchez. Jerez, August 24th, 2006

Just a few hours have elapsed since her death. Though her quejío began to fade little by little. A long illness has carried away from us that piteous echo, that wounding timbre which plunged into one’s very bowels when she used to sing por soleá. From Utrera to heaven. Fernanda has left us, but the blackness of her voice will remain in the showcase of cante flamenco history, enshrouded and vivified in the nimbus of the chimerical which surrounds the Jondo Art’s greatest figures.

Fernanda de Utrera. Frame from 'Flamenco', by Carlos Saura

“I ask God crying
to take away my health
as I love you so much
and to give it to you...”

Fernanda de Utrera, a wounding and piteous timbre, a cry that now sings to us from the next life. A storm which calms with the silence of death. A heartrending shout that rips one’s heart, like the thorns of the rosebush. Feeling which traps you with the pure sentiment of cantaora truth. Today, cante is in mourning. Her hometown, Utrera, weeps for the loss of one of the greatest cantaoras flamenco has ever known. Who hasn’t heard of Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera! Those two gypsy women who touch the flesh of the soul. Two exceptional cantaoras, heiresses to the legacy of Fernando Peña ‘Pinini’.

Bernarda has lost her basis, her bosom sister, her inspiration, her lament. The occasions when Bernarda now climbs onto stage are few and far between, but when she does so not a moment goes by that she doesn’t remember the cante of her sister Fernanda. With that fury and that sublime compás por bulerías. A remembrance of a matchless, inimitable artist. As personal as they come. Because Fernanda knew how to make her own the cantes of La Serneta, through Rosario la del Colorao.

Today that tandem is broken which only time has been able to separate, Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, carriers of a wide range of the best black sounds, examples of a unique cantaora idiosyncrasy.

Fernanda de Utrera. Frame from 'Flamenco', by Carlos Saura

“Fuss in her hands
and heart in her mouth
the way gypsies sing.
Soleá, that of grief
With thousands of troubles on the inside
and a smile on the outside.
Fernanda:
She who sings por soleares
better than anyone sings them”

(Salvador de Quinta)

Over half a century devoted to this artform which will remain present in recordings such as ‘Sevilla, cuna del cante’ (1959), ‘El cante de Fernanda y Bernarda de Utrera’ (1970) and ‘Potaje gitano en Utrera’ (1973). And of course, in that appearance in the film ‘Flamenco’ (1994) by Carlos Saura, where she latently left that distinguished timbre por soleá. Standing out among her awards is the National Prize por Soleares and Bulerías at the Flamenco Art Contest of Córdoba (1957), the Mairena del Alcor Contest Prize (1966) and the National Cante Prize of the Institute of Flamencology (1967). In 1989 she received the ‘Compás del Cante’. From Utrera to glory.

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