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 Young Performers Contest III Lope
de Vega Theatre. The shading of the suite by Gualberto and the daguerreotype of Hurtado in a day overshadowed by the contest. TWO MISCELLANEOUS ARTISTS AND ONE POINTLESS CONTEST
Out of twelve competitors, three stayed for the third and last day of the contest. Two of them were winners, singer Laura Vital and dancer Andrés Peña; the bad news came to Santiago Lara. The problem with the jury, who was aggravated with the pre-selection process, resembled the programming of the Bienal: misleading, precipitated and pointless. "Oh you guys are exploiting flamencooo!" screamed a famous singer from Triana, endorsing himself, while the jury and the organization didn’t know what to do with themselves.
If José Quevedo "El Bolita" became a little nervous when he opened with his baroque fandangos, it was impeccable compared to the follow-up performance of David Lagos, who sang appreciable malagueñas and trotting bulerías. How could Laura Vital do the very same songs? She lengthened the twin malagueña and changed the bulerías that she had prepared with caracoles, more appropriate for her tone that was marked by the guitar of Manuel Alfonseca. Her lack of real pain in the seguiriyas made one think of other names… …But, the Lámpara Minera prize was taken by a young and beautiful girl? Well here we have this sanluqueña tied to the sponsoring foundation. And the last bright star of La Unión was a youth of 19? Well here there is one who is 16, insecure and surely traumatized by being unjustly put after a creator like El Bolita de Jerez, the let down must have hit him, and likewise for Rafael de Utrera, after having left moments of brilliance and experience throughout this Bienal. At least this third session of the contest enabled us to hear two of the best current voices, that of Lagos and Arcángel, who sang next to Enrique Soto for the dancer Andrés Peña (under the same team as La Yerbabuena) , with the guitars of Paco Jarana and Salvador Gutiérrez. Solid seguiriyas, without abusing or exaggerating, with sparkling movements in the soleá por bulerías. They did it with the only prize holder that had some kind of sensibility.
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Antonio & David Hurtado ‘El
oro de las Hespérides’ Wednesday, October 4th, 11 PM ETHERAL ALLEGORY
While the jury continued to fuss and fight, "El oro de las Hespérides" was presented, a metaphoric work by the Hurtado brothers, based on their recent album, "Pentagrama flamenco" , that has its compliment in the book, "El arte de la escritura musical flamenca", also written by both. These conscientious grandsons of Juanito Valderrama made the live CD with the vocal assistance of their mother, Lola Valderrama, adorned by original pieces in the luxury of her two pianos and virtual oboe (smaller string and percussion sections), sharing everything under the pompousness of the subtitle: "Mythological symphony of the legendary genesis of the art of Flamenco." |
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Gualberto García "Flamenco
Constellation" Wednesday, October 4th, 7 PM BEHIND THE STARS
Gualberto, the legendary troublemaker of Triana, proposed a new tour of his best work in latest years –that of which consumes him mostly in aromas of orientalism, baroque, flamenco and rock: it gives form to the conceptual symphony that tours around in his head, inside his lyrical constellation of pulsating galaxies of many musicians. Thirty years ago he recorded "Behind the stars" (Smash, 1969) with El Lebrijano and with Morente in 1975, with Camarón and Agujetas shortly after. He limited himself (expanding) on sitar and flamenco guitar, and played the veena for the first time in public (precursor to the sitar), which "I bought on the internet and am learning to play on the internet." Dark tones in rhythm and melody with the same hand, an oriental Ry Cooder por seguiriyas, a Nyman-style cameraman raising up with bulerías de caracol accompanied by his strange orchestra. In the initial rhythms he already highlighted parts of the bulería with flamenco guitar and tinaja, that of his usual Álvaro Garrido from the group Caravasar. In addition he uses a harp and upright bass (Polkicheva y Nikolov); his principal support was in the soprano voice of his pregnant daughter Maili, who spoke with her violin – she has played years in a prestigious orchestra in Chicago- on various occasions. A flamenco comet over the conductor of this space odyssey that weaves different styles: bulerías, soleá de Cádiz, seguirillas, fandangos, sevillanas bíblicas, alegrías, tangos, campanilleros… it take us out there, behind the stars. Luis Clemente Translated by Jessica Lorber |
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