“Pasión y ley” Cía. Antonio “El Pipa” Monday, October 4th, 2004. 9:00pm. Teatro Lope de Vega, Seville       Program XIII Bienal de Arte Flamenco Seville

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Text : Estela Zatania
Fotos: Manny Rocca

The sculptor: Antonio ‘El Pipa’. The passion: Lola Greco. The law: Ma. José Franco. The tradition: Juana la de ‘El Pipa’, Enrique ‘El Extremeño’. The workers: Manuel Tañé, Pascual de Lorca, Juan Moneo. Musicians: Alexis Lefèvre-violin, Nacho Gil-sax and Turkish clarinet, Luis de Periquín-percussion and Hindu tablas, Felipa del Moreno-cante, Joaquín Flores-palmas.

“Pasión y ley” is the title of the show Antonio ‘El Pipa’ premiered last Februrary at the Festival de Jerez and presented Monday night October 4th within the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla. Since that debut the work has acquired theatrical elements that add little to the overall effect, or worse yet, are confusing or even laughable as is the case of the three-legged statue or the few lines of dialogue spoken by Juana la del Pipa when she hands a welder’s helmet to Antonio and admonishes: “let’s go, it’s time to work”.

The group earnestly and with all its heart wishes the show to be seen as a “work”, but what comes across is a series of dances that bear little or no relation to the libretto...it’s clear that not even Antonio himself buys into it when he goes out of character to take a bow after dancing soleá. But who’s keeping track of these things, these people are from Jerez after all and they come with their compás and with a virtual Kamasutra of the thousand and one ways of doing bulerías: without music, with or without cante, “cuplé”, faster, slower, to guitar or orchestra...

A fine pretext for some first-class performers to exhibit their habitual flamenco wares

Enrique el Extremeño is a delight with his outsized red armchair and his Extremaduran cante tinged with the sound of Utrera where he’s lived much of his adult life. His rhythmic abandolao cante offers yet another pretext to dance bulerías and the charming duo with Juana, where they joke around, singing and dancing festive cantes, offers wonderful moments that should have been developed further. Nowadays singers and guitarists are required to interpret acting roles and we can begin to talk about those of greater or lesser ability in this respect: el Extremeño is one of the best.

María José Franco serves up her quality dancing inspired in the most traditional style, but the same multicolored dress she wore in Jerez continues to offend the collective sensibility throughout the evening. Lola Greco is in a class by herself, a free spirit with impossibly long and flexible limbs she uses to create fascinating visual effects complemented by her large eyes and expressive face.

Other works fall into the error of too much theater and not enough flamenco. “Pasión y ley” is far from being the coherent piece of theater to which it aspires, but it’s a fine pretext for some first-class performers to exhibit their habitual flamenco wares within a theatrical context that some audiences can’t seem to do without nowadays.

DVD 'PASION Y LEY' Antonio El Pipa & Lola Greco