Gala tribute to Córdoba’s National Flamenco Contest
Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Paco Sánchez
Guest artists. Guitar: Daniel Navarro, guitar, Juan Requena, Cante, José Valencia, Antonio Campos, Juan Manzano “Coco”. Percussion: Ramón Porrinas. Dancers: Naini Paños, Esther Jurado, Gala Vivancos, Álvaro Paños, Encarnación López, Moisés Navarro, Mariano Bernal. Choreography, Javier Latorre, Rafael Estévez. Musical direction: Faustino Núñez. Director: Javier Latorre.
After 20 days of pre-selection, semifinales and finals, in addition to photography and painting exhibits, new books and reprints, a wide range of events throughout the year, and finally, the gala presentations of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, Manolo Sanlúcar, Carmen Linares and Mayte Martín, the offically declared “Year of Flamenco” that began in October of 2005, and lasted nearly a year and a half, is reaching its natural conclusion.Fourteen winners have been announced, and last night, at the Gran Teatro de Córdoba, the Gala Tribute to Córdoba’s National Flamenco Contest was presented for the first time.
Javier Latorre
With strong competition generated by the very same flamenco calendar scheduled by local authorities, including the flamenco festival “Cruzando el Río”, and more surprisingly, la Farruca’s show “Gitanas”, both free open-air presentations the same night, there were many empty seats at Córdoba’s Gran Teatro.Nevertheless, the sincere desire to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this triennial festival, and recall the glorious victory of the present Llave de Oro del Cante, Antonio Fernández Díaz “Forsforito”, overshadowed any possible negative points: we came to Córdoba to celebrate a half century of good flamenco and honor the great artists who have graced this stage over the years.
The show that was created and directed by Javier Latorre began directly with an audiovisual presentation that recalled past winners of the festival; the faces of Fosforito, Lebrijano, Paco de Lucía, el Cabrero, Manuela Carrasco, Fernanda de Utrera, Chocolate, Calixto Sánchez, Manolo Mairena, José Antonio Rodríguez, Chano Lobato, Matilde Coral, Vicente Amigo, El Pele and Javier Latorre himself, among many others, came together in an eloquent collage.Unforgettable fragments of music by Amigo, Manolo Sanlúcar and Paco de Lucía gave way to a group dance with Latorre’s unmistakable mark.
The guitar portion of the program was held up by José Antonio Rodríguez, winner of the “Ramón Montoya” prize in 1977, who offered a mini recital within the recital.With traditional flavor tinged by his contemporary sensibility, he played por soleá, followed by a jazz composition with the accompaniment of percussion and second guitar.
We came to Córdoba to celebrate a half century of good flamenco and honor the great artists who have graced this stage over the years.
José A. Rodríguez
An ambitious but uneven whirlwind potpourri with fragments of cante with the most representative voices of previous winners, orchestrated music, the sound of castanets and other elements, is the pretext for an equally spotty choreography.The inevitable confusion segues to the impeccable simplicity of a singer and his guitarist: José de la Tomasa, winner of the “Manuel Torre” prize in 1977, and guitarist Manolo Herrera.The great-nephew of Manuel Torre sang serranas followed by what he announced as “cantes de la Alameda”, in other words, soleá por bulerías with a Seville flavor, very different from those cantes created in the taverns of Jerez and which some people still call “bulerías pa’ escuchar”.He ended his performance with siguiriyas summoning up all his power, chest-pounding included, triggering thunderous applause.
Next came the bumpiest moment of the eveningg. An audiovisual of Eva Yerbabuena first lost the audio, and then the visual, leaving the audience in an embarrassing dark silence impossible to gloss over.A percussionist appears and begins with the straightforward compás of Lebrija for a voice from Lebrija, that of José Valencia, in addion to Juan Manzano “el Coco” and the interesting singer from Granada, Antonio Campos.This is the setting for the brilliant young dancer Daniel Navarro, winner of the “Mario Maya” prize in 2001.He has an impressive presence, and his greatest asset is his ability to project tense calm, a sort of placid minimalism that simultaneously conceals and reveals the artist’s turbulent inner life.This psychological backdrop, backed up by good taste and impeccable technique, make Navarro one of the most promising figures of current flamenco dance.No wonder he is idolized in his native Córdoba, and the affectionate cheering from the audience of “come on Dani!” are non-stop.
José de la Tomasa
What was intended as a smash ending, with the entire group following, movement by movement, the dance proyected onto the backdrop of a young Javier Latorre from when he triumphed in this very same contest, ended up as little more than good intentions; once again the audiovisual part was not up to par, and the group was somewhat disorganized, but the emotional audience response righted all wrongs, and we are happy to join in this well-deserved tribute that the venerable Concurso de Córdoba treated itself to on its fiftieth birthday
