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Text: Estela Zatania LET THE FIESTA BEGIN… Dance: María del Mar Moreno, Mercedes Ruiz (guest artists), Miguel Téllez, Angelita Gómez (special collaboration). Cante: Fernando Terremoto (guest artist), Antonio Malena, Londro, Mateo Soleá, El Pescaílla. Guitar: Santiago Lara, Santiago Moreno, Manuel Valencia Pascual de Lorca. Piano: José Zarzana. Percussion: Pedro Navarro. Palmas: Luis de la Tota. With Luisa Terremoto, Rosario, Juani Peña, La Bastiana. Original idea, libretto, script: Francisco López. Music coordinator: Paco Cepero. Choreography: Javier Latorre. Jerez loves itself. All the towns and cities of the world love themselves. But Jerez, more so. And we love Jerez for loving itself so much, because you can’t help but admire that kind of innocence. Nevertheless, that same ingenuousness can be an obstacle when it comes to constructing a coherent, balanced stage presentation. Every artist knows the worst artistic crime is falling in love with one’s own work. “¡Viva Jerez!” exhibits the best intentions of a series of outstanding professionals: Javier Latorre did the choreography, Paco Cepero coordinated the music and Francisco López directed and coordinated the entire project. If you take the elements individually, each of the respective directors did a fine job. But despite some excellent moments, it’s a very uneven show. Some intensely and effectively staged numbers compete with others that fall like a tedious ton of bricks. A long nana and trilleras, both a capella, have us looking at our watches when the show has barely begun, and nine or ten martinetes in a row, without dance, is excessive, in spite of the admirable interpretation of Fernando Terremoto and the other singers. Suddenly, a short verdiales with dance leaves you scratching your head…verdiales?…without alleviating the overall glacial pace, and María del Mar’s siguiriyas would have been twice as effective with half the length. When finally Luisa Terremoto shouts out “that’s enough doom and gloom, long live Jerez!”, you sense a collective sigh of relief, and the antidote for all the melancholy is street-wise tanguillos with the delightful comic dance of Luis de la Tota. This show would benefit from cutting back on dead weight to make the numerous highlights shine all the more brightly. But the inevitable fiesta finale with the round ladies rights a lot of wrongs, and the overall impression is positive.
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