Compañía Ángeles Gabaldón. “Inmigración” Miguel Poveda Villamarta Theater, Jerez de la Frontera. Friday, March 5th, 2004. 9:00pm

Dance: Ángeles Gabaldón, Marco A. Vargas, Fani Fuster, Felipe Mato, Lourdes Recio, Nicolia Morris, François Soumah, Chloé B. Dauphin. Cante: Manuel Lombo, Jallal Chekara. Guitar: Daniel Méndez, Óscar Lago, Keko Baldomero. Percusión: Antonio Montiel. Choreography: Javier Latorre, Ángeles Gabaldón, Marco A. Vargas.

The eighth day of the Festival de Jerez began in full flamenco swing at the Museo Taurino with singer Capullo de Jerez, and Niño Jero at the guitar. Neither ‘niños’ nor ‘capullos’ (children, flowerbuds), but both seasoned veterans, they managed to get the audience jumping out of their seats as always, with no accessories other than compás and the structure of flamenco which is always there for those who know how to make use of it.

After Farruquito’s offering the previous night, any ‘work’ would pale by comparison. But theatrical flamenco with all the trimmings is now fashionable with the general public, and the show “Inmigración” takes the premise even further with an audiovisual presentation and openly transcultural intentions.

On the surface the central theme is, as the title suggests, immigration and the problems of immigrants, but author and director Fernando González-Caballos deftly uses that jumping-off point to combine incongruent ethnic or cultural references reflecting the musical direction of flamenco in recent years. From the radio comes a voice speaking in German to count the 12 grapes customarily consumed on New Year’s Eve in Spain, two black dancers drive home the fact that flamenco is universal, a message further reinforced by singer Jallal Chekara who sings por soleá in Arabic, and mining cante is accompanied by rock music.

“Inmigración” is a collection of vignettes, some better than others, interspersed with disturbing images of the infrahuman conditions at borders and refugee camps. Flamenco takes a back seat to social protest. Thirty years ago Mario Maya explored the terrain of flamenco as a political tool, but it’s always a risky proposition. Despite conveying tragic emotions, a siguiriya that raises goosebumps brings shouts of ‘ole’, applause and contented faces, because no matter how you care to slice it, it’s entertainment. After all, flamenco was born in poverty and developed within a framework of extreme necessity. By contrast, these explicit images of misery, whether projected or danced, manage to elicit sympathy but function better as protest than art. There is no doubt that “Inmigración” avoids superficiality, but it goes to the opposite extreme projecting a relentless depressive feeling that does not fulfill the principal mission of all art which is to stimulate and, like it or not, entertain.

Despite regionalisms and prejudice, Poveda
is getting hard-earned recognition

After intermission the voice of Miguel Poveda and his guitarist Chicuelo offered a recital of traditional cante. The two Catalonians know how to capture the essence of various flamenco forms, as demonstrated from the first moment with alegrías de Cádiz and of Pinini, fresh and flavorful. Poveda has taken some time to make his mark down here in Andalusia, but despite regionalisms and prejudice, he is getting hard-earned recognition. Verses that evoke “blessed compas, blessed Pericón and La Perla” do him no harm, nor does his declaration: “I would like to dedicate this recital to a person from Jerez who taught me a great deal, Luis el Zambo”.

Malagueñas which include a splendid interpretation of the lovely style of Concha la Peñaranda, and Chicuelo is right up to the task, carefully administering his modernist tendencies to support the cante perfectly. With the mining cante that earned him a major triumph ten years ago in La Unión, Poveda shows off his skill contrasting sweet, exquisitely internalized melisma, with a full open voice at just the right moment.

Martinetes, tangos, and to wrap it up, this Catalonian dared to sing to Jerez por bulerías, without guitar accompaniment for much of the beginning, with the compás of three ‘palmeros’, and one verse underlined the emotional debt he feels: “The first time in the Plazuela, the first time in Santiago, the cante of Luis el Zambo made me drunk, no one sings por bulería like that gypsy”.

We left Miguel Poveda just as he was wrapping up his recital and the audience was beginning to cheer him on, to make a bee-line for the Sala de la Compañía to see dancer Andrés Peña and singer Rafael de Utrera, also managing to take in singer Anabel Rosado with guitarist Fernando Moreno at the peña cultural El Perro de Paterna. Five different flamenco shows in a single day...I must be in Jerez.

Text: Estela Zatania

Theater Villamarta Program
De Peña en Peña Program: Trasnoches, De Peñas, Peña de Guardia
Other shows(Gloria Pura, Bordón y cuenta nueva, De la Frontera, Café Cantante, Sólos en Compañía)
Courses and workshops

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