2009 CIUTAT VELLA FLAMENCO FESTIVAL. LA MACANITA • RAFAELA
CARRASCO
Strong. Deep
S.C. Barcelona, May 20th, 2009
First part. La Macanita:
cante. Manuel Parrilla: guitar. Chícharo, Gregorio:
clapping/ Second part. Rafaela Carrasco:
baile. Cano, Jesús Torres: guitar. Antonio Campos:
cante. 16th Ciutat Vella Flamenco Festival. Contemporary
Culture Center, Pati de les Dones. Barcelona, May 20th,
2009. 9 p.m.
Two women. Strong and deep. Cante, one.
Baile, the other. But both of them, music. La Macanita,
the roots, the core. Rafaela Carrasco, sophistication, details.
Each with her instrument, each with her discourse, each
with her personal way of channeling her energy. And both
of them equally swayed the fun-loving audience of this 2009
Ciutat Vella Flamenco Festival, which premiered the open-air
stage of the Pati de les Dones on its second day. But it
wasn’t opened by either one of them, but rather by
the puppet of Lola Flores, built in 1948, which introduced
them by singing and dancing with her white bata de cola
and her loose black hair, por bulerías.
And then, the first pearl. La Macanita,
contrasting the brown of her skin with the bright red of
her dress, came in at a slow pace, sustaining the weight
and cadence of the tientos. Her voice sugary, but always
mighty. And beside her, paving the way for her, the fundamental
guitar of Manuel Parrilla. With the change to tangos, she
doubles up her power, acts, moves her arms and expels. Ready
for the soleá, her being. A huge cante in her, with
its drama and depth marked entirely. She caught her breath
while she rocked El Mellizo’s malagueña, fed
by nutritious falsetas. Then she was ready for the next
onslaught: the seguiriya. And she plunged into the ‘ay’s’
as if they were daggers. Chícharo and Gregorio had
their palms ready to provide the bulería with soniquete,
teaching the lessons of how to sustain, cross and play with
the key rhythm. The cantes, old-time. And she bid farewell
standing, without a mike, dancing and knowing she was obliged
to recall – for the second time of the night –
one of her famous fellow countrywomen, Lola.
The second pearl was very refined. Rafaela
Carrasco – who replaced María Pagés
on the bill at the last minute – confirmed the fantastic
aftertaste left by her show ‘ConCierto gusto’
as the festival’s finale in its past edition. On this
occasion, she opted for a selection of her own pearls on
a very intimate scale. The cante by Antonio Campos and guitars
by Cano and Jesús Torres were all the company the
Sevillian bailaora needed for her face-offs with the sole
rhythm of the clapping, in order to sketch a very beautiful
score by Cano, to make the malagueña played by Torres
shine even more, to shape a chilling picture by wrapping
herself up in the echo by Campos reeling off the ancient
cante ‘Ven acá mujer del mundo’. And
her stylized figure, the great care in each and every sound
of her footwork, her musical understanding and that refined
knowledge of how to get there and how to leave … those
details which make admiring this bailaora more than a pleasure,
since she reveals tons of perseverance. And the thing is
as Tomasa sings, “you can’t build a road with
little bits of clouds”.
Hall,
8 p.m. Silvia Pérez •
José Enrique Morente
Silvia
Pérez
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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The evenings at the Hall this year are devoted
to revealing new cante talents. And this first
diptych was opened by a peculiar singer cajoled
by flamenco. Silvia Pérez knows that
she isn’t a cantaora and even resisted
taking part in this bill. But she does have
an interesting way of approaching its rhythms
and its melodies. It isn’t just the
beauty of her voice, but that original way
she arranges a song por alegrías or
fits a fado into a farruca. And take note
that she doesn’t just sing, but also
plays the clarinet and the box drum she is
sitting on. Beside her, stressing the romanticism
of her discourse, she had Sevillian guitarist
Marta Robles.
José
Enrique Morente
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
|
The other page was for José Enrique
Morente, the son of the one who inaugurated
the program up-close and in grand fashion
the night before. His offspring held his own
in these first steps he is taking as a cantaor.
He’s lucky to come from where he comes
from. He’s so young that his voice might
still change, since it is fine and remains
to be elaborated. He sang step by step, very
serious, very restrained, trying himself out
in a varied range of very paternal styles
and lyrics. Accompanying him on toque was
Juan Carmona’s grandson, with a guitar
with old-fashioned flavor and good sound.
An experience which will be had this week
by, among others, Simón Román,
El Duende, Mari Ángeles Fernández
and the already very solid Jesús Méndez.
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