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Enrique
de Melchor: ‘El Arco de las Rosas’
Sala
Joaquín Turina.
Thursday, October 5th. 7:00 PM
The
conclusion of the Bienal performances in Seville was a virtual humiliation grouped
in three main acts.
UNDER
AN ARCH OF FACULTY AND COMMOTION
The first two pieces
were not from ‘Arco de las Rosas,’ the sixth recording in the career of this artist
representing the first generation of modern virtuosos: He did not perform the
fandangos he recorded with his mentor Paco de Lucía on this recording,
in which Paco Cepero is heard as palmero. Since his accompaniment of Mairena’s
final recordings, the Marchena arch has taken on the color of his focused and
kindly demeanor.
He began with the
rondeñas ‘Desnudando el alma’ (from an earlier recording and dedicated
to his brother-in-law Ray Heredia), supported by two guitars (Antonio Reyes and
his nephew Melchor Chico); then a seguiriya-debla (that Alfonso Losa danced).
He passed through the arch with ‘Danza de los gitanos’ ("slow bulerías"
sung by Lola Heredia) and the tangos ‘Fardiquera.’ Enrique left his nephew
onstage playing por soleá (sung by Leo Triviño and danced
by Losa), but the nine of them returned por rumba (plus a colombiana
with flute) and a high-spirited bulerías de Jerez (with Chato de
Málaga remembering Terremoto and Luis de la Pica) before the bland
rumba and the end (of the show?).
Recital of Calixto
Sánchez with Manolo Franco
Theater
Lope de Vega
Thursday,
October 5th. 9:30 PM.
THE
FACULTY
Calixto Sánchez
is a cantaor from Mairena, the director of the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco,
a school teacher with airs of a university professor, and the winner of the contest
in the first Bienal, back in 1980. An hour and a half for six cantes
with little compás; respiratory gymnastics… He performed none of
the material from his new recording, to be published within a month. The title
is ‘Retrato flamenco,’ and it deals with Antonio Machado. In his lecture of gesticulation
one has to look hard to find the pellizco. Modulation, study, concentration…
This is hard work (his faculty) por Levante, soleá, seguiriya,
alegrías, and tientos-tangos… "Perfectacularidad."
What can one do when the public applauds and encourages the guitarist; that romantic
engineer Manolo Franco; that crystalline and canonical guitar for singing that
is stretched to the point of exhaustion? Get down to it, and put all one’s effort
into the off-mic fandangos that concluded the performance.
Young
Artists’ Contest Awards Ceremony
Theater
Lope de Vega
Thursday,
October 5th. 11:00 PM.
THE
SHAME
The awarding of
the prizes was a solemn event. Solemn embarrassment for the singer’s frigid seguiriya
(after Arcángel sang a spectacular cambio de Manuel Molina for the
dancer Andres Peña), and upon hearing the winning guitarist repeatedly
go out of rhythm por bulerías with the singer he was accompanying.
Only the accompanists of the dancer and some moments from the latter kept the
awards ceremony from complete failure. Each of the winning artists was awarded
half a million pesetas and a tour of the eight Andalusian provinces. This is actually
not such a big deal, but let their names be known, nonetheless: Laura Vital, Santiago
Lara, and Andrés Peña. They performed the same palos as in
the contest: the cantaora sang seguiriyas, caracoles, and
bulerías; the guitarist played granaínas, tarantas,
and bulerías; and the bailaor danced seguiriyas and
bulerías. For the record.
Luis
Clemente
Translated by
Norman Paul Kliman
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