Festival Suma Flamenca 2008 settles
in Madrid
with forty cante, baile and toque shows
Cañizares, Pitingo, Toni el Pelao,
Vicente Amigo and Enrique Morente, on the bill of the
festival which, dedicated to Pilar López, is to
be held May 17th to June 15th
S.C. Madrid, April 9th, 2008
Suma
Flamenca 2008. Full show schedule
Madrid firms up its commitment
to flamenco. For the third straight year, the entire region
bends over backwards for cante, baile and toque. Festival
Suma Flamenca 2008 schedules a total of 38 shows from
May 17th to June 15th. And not just in the capital, but
also on stages in the region as emblematic as Chinchón’s
Plaza Mayor and Aranjuez’s Plaza de la Constitución.
Artists such as Enrique
Morente, Cañizares, Carmen Linares, Pitingo,
Tomatito, Vicente Amigo, Eva Yerbabuena, Toni
el Pelao and Chano Lobato, among many others, take
part in the festival, which is dedicated in memory of
the “maestra of maestros” Pilar López.
Artists included
in Suma Flamenca 2008 (Photo Daniel Muņoz)
With the expectation of surpassing the
over eighteen thousand spectators in the past edition,
the third edition of Festival Suma Flamenca will kick
off on May 17th, 2008. For one month, Madrid and its province
have an intense date with flamenco which takes shape in
a bill with 38 cante, baile and toque shows. In the capital,
the festival will take stages like the Teatro Albéniz,
where there will be performances by Estrella
Morente, Pepe Habichuela & Josemi Carmona, Gerardo
Núñez with ‘Homenaje a Sabicas’,
the face-off between Chano
Lobato and Son de la Frontera, Esperanza Fernández
presenting her album ‘Recuerdos’,
besides a tribute to the flamenco neighborhood of El Rastro,
the show ‘Goyesca’ devoted to the “Dos
de Mayo” Bicentennial and a gala with young talents
from Madrid.
Another hub will be the Círculo
de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Circle), where shows will be
performed such as the presentation of the new album ‘Soulería’
by Pitingo, ‘Ana Salazar canta a Edith Piaf’,
‘Suite Iberia’ by Cañizares
and, in the words of director Juan Verdú, “in
recognition of one of the most flamenco Madrilenian families,
Los Pelaos”, ‘Puro Flamenco’ by Toni
el Pelao & La Uchi. Also in the city, but in the
hidden Olivar de Castillejos, the poetry and cante series
‘La música de los espejos’ will take
place, which will match Aute with Marina Heredia, Felipe
Benítez with Arcángel, Luis García
Montero with Enrique Morente, and José Luis Ortiz
Nuevo with Carmen
Linares. Tablaos and concert halls join the program
in the capital with an abundant offer of late-night shows
and related activities.
Toni el Pelao, Cañizares
and Pitingo
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
Then in the region, Suma Flamenca 2008
once again completes Flamenco Week in Alcobendas. In its
twenty-fifth edition, it offers performances by artists
like Carmen Linares, José Menese, Vicente
Soto and El Güito, among others. Standing out
is the presence of the festival on stages as special as
Chinchón’s Plaza Mayor, where the concert
‘Camaroneando’ by Tomatito
is scheduled; Aranjuez’s Plaza de la Constitución
with ‘Santo y seña’ by Eva
Yerbabuena; Paseo Federico García Lorca in
Villa de Vallecas with a tribute to the Granada-born poet
by Enrique Morente; and the Universidad Cistercense of
Alcalá de Henares with Vicente Amigo in concert.
The theaters in municipalities such as Alcorcón,
Torrejón de Ardoz, Torrelodones, San Fernando de
Henares and Leganés also join this jondo circuit,
with shows like that of Granada-born bailaora Fuensanta
la Moneta. And the thing is that, in total, there
will be over forty performances offered in this third
edition of the festival, which pays tribute to recently
deceased bailaora Pilar López, according to Santiago
Fisas, Councilman of Culture and Tourism of the Community
of Madrid, “a Madrilenian by adoption who got her
school across from Madrid”. As an appetizer, the
presentation at the Complejo Cultural El Águila
was illustrated with cantes by Roberto Lorente (in the
cover photo), Israel Paz and María Toledo, and
the ‘little kicks’ por bulerías by
bailaores such as María Juncal and Belén
López. Madrid is getting that jondo feeling.
María Juncal and Belén
López, among others (Photo Daniel Muñoz)
