The disc also contains a film showing the ‘making of’ the show, the company’s end of
season farewell, and technical and artistic background information, along with
biographies and photos of the featured artists

Flamenco-world.com, October 2004

‘Pasión y Ley’, the latest show by Antonio el Pipa, is set to be immortalized. This flamenco dance production with a theatrical air was recorded for the sake of posterity, and is now available on DVD, although for the time being only in European and South American PAL format. Starring the bailaor from Jerez, bailaora María José Franco and ballerina Lola Greco, and directed by Paco Tous, the production, as its name suggests, centers on the artist's doubts of whether to be guided by his passions or by the law. “One day I dreamt that what I have and what I want could be compatible”, explains Antonio el Pipa. The DVD - in Spanish and English - features the complete show, but also contains a selection of additional material, including a ‘making of’ the show. There are the artists' comments and images of the rehearsals, the company celebrating their end of season, and technical and artistic background information.

Antonio el Pipa's traditional dance, María José Franco's feminine dance, Lola Greco's sweet dance, the solid vocals of Enrique el Extremeño and Tía Juana la del Pipa, the performance of the evocative music composed by Dorantes for violin, sax, percussion, cante and palmas... It's all here on the new audiovisual offering of Antonio el Pipa's ‘Pasión y Ley’, available now on DVD. The show was premièred in February 2004 at Teatro Villamarta, as part of the Festival de Jerez, and the cameras were there to film the proceedings. The show's success can be judged from the end of season curtain call 'por bulerías' included in the extras on the DVD, which also include the ‘making of’ the show; and the list of the elite cast of both artistic and technical personnel, with biographies and photographs of the main artists.

Paco Ortega, director of El Pescador de Estrellas, the company that put together the DVD, explains that this is “a carefully-prepared audiovisual offering, treated almost as if it were a cinema production.” The producer adds that the recording was made with ten cameras, and that more than three months' work went into preparing the final cut. And he feels happy with the result: “We've created a DVD people will love, it doesn't drag on or get too heavy, and the scenes and menus are easy to access.”

The DVD of ‘Pasión y Ley’ is another addition to what is still a quite limited list of flamenco dance audiovisual products on the market. Right now on DVD, the only shows available are ‘Mariana Pineda’ by Sara Baras and ‘Live at the Royal Albert Hall’ by Joaquín Cortés, since Antonio Canales's ‘Torero’ is already deleted from catalogs. Apart from the superproductions, other interesting flamenco dance DVDs are also available, like the offerings from the series ‘Jóvenes maestros del baile flamenco’ which feature María del Mar Moreno on one and Rafael Campallo on another, to name but two.

magazine@flamenco-world.com