|
Compañía
Israel Galván: ‘La metamorfosis’
Theater
Lope de Vega.
Thursday, September 21st. 9:00 PM.
HUNGARIAN
ROCK
Israel Galván
Israel Galván,
spearhead of the flamenco avant-garde in dance, premiers ‘La metamorfosis.’ Other
things just don’t change, like the singing of Curro Malena, from that same evening.
‘Hungarian Rock’
is the first piece of Gyorgy Ligeti heard in ‘La metamorfosis,’ the main reference—along
with Luigi Nono, Cristobal Halffter, or Bela Bartok—in this music that takes place
between parentheses, running parallel to flamenco. Violins. Buzzing sounds. Flamenco
wings. Israel Galván assumes the position of the praying mantis, and he
devours. He is devoured.
Israel Galván
The Cubist bailaor
appeared in ‘Los zapatos rojos,’ premiering in the last Bienal with more
detailed staging in its futuristic nuances (even Marinetti), and with the same
crew here, all of which are taken to extremes. Pedro G. Romero extends the colors
of the musical collage and a more consolidated Manuel Soler in his role as the
Tempter and bailaor. ‘La metamorfosis’ reproduces the art of insinuation
in black and white.
Before Israel Galván
was transformed into Gregorio Samsa, there were family scenes (with his real family!)
based on another Kafkaesque story: ‘Preparativos de una boda en el campo.’
His father José Galván, his mother Eugenia de los Reyes, and his
sister Pastora Galván took turns por tangos and bulerías.
The blocks of guitars were handled by the Seville native Rafael Rodríguez,
on one side, and Chicuelo, from Catalonia, on the other, in an all-out battle
with the sound. The maestro José Galván, for grace and outstanding
rhythm, earned a solid round of applause.
Enrique el Extremeño
sang a soleá that Israel danced with exemplary and infinite variety,
and amazing tics: a slight movement of his hips, a few centimeters of shoulder,
an unfinished arm… His sarcasm was clearly seen por tangos that were broken
off from the bulerías. When the curtain announced the end of the
first part, Israel Samsa listened to a strange sound and hinted at the
bug within him (his restlessness) that he would metamorphose over the next hour
and a half. Violins, footwork. Spasms of insectivorous wrists.
Following a fascinating
video with original music by Enrique Morente with Lagartija Nick and his daughter
Estrella, there was an irritating high-pitched buzzing noise. Part of the bizarre
events that began the transformation. Surrealist: a black bailaora (Nicolia
Morris, the sister), an enormous woman (Rocío Coral, the mother, daughter
of Matilde), and the maestro Soler as the provoking father were inserted in the
sound of the heartrending mutation (sore string sections). They danced, in this
order, sevillanas bíblicas, seguiriyas de Armenia, marianas,
tanguillos, romeras, peteneras, soleá… The
singers were Encarna Anillo, Ana Real, and Enrique el Extremeño, who concluded
the performance, singing:
Él no
es quien era ni quien debería ser
He’s no longer
who he was, nor who he should be
With insectile
agony, he underscores the transformation of a new Israel Galván.
Curro
Malena and Inés Bacán: ‘Flamenco a dos’
Theater
Alameda.
Thursday, September 21st. 12:00 PM.
Inés Bacán
Curro Malena sweated
in his shirt, but eased up as the evening went on. His power por alegrías
and fandangos naturales didn’t quite bring on pellizcos (hard to
come by in this Bienal), but he did have a moment or two por soleá
(diving deep into Mairena’s version of the Alcalá style), seguiriyas
with cabales and a lesson in bulerías consisting of Lebrija,
Utrera, romances, and Jerez. Accompanying him on guitar was his son Antonio
Malena, who also played for Inés Bacán’s tientos and soleá,
so creamy that it’s a wonder that the cante could make its way out of her
without coagulating right there on the spot. Like her seguiriyas in the
styles of Enrique Ortega, Joaquín Lacherna, and Manuel Molina; like her
final fandangos, bulerías, and tonás.
Curro Malena
Luis
Clemente
Translated by Norman Paul Kliman
|
