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XLVII Festival Internacional
del Cante de las Minas.
Julián Estrada, Compañía de Sara Baras “Sabores”
Friday, August 3rd, 2007. La Unión
La Unión - © DeFlamenco.com
Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas
On Spain’s eastern coast, in a small mining town near Cartagena, we’re enjoying the 47th edition of one of the most important festivals of the world of flamenco: the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas, the “La Unión festival” as it’s known. If only recently it was officially declared by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism to be of “International Touristic Interest”, flamenco fans have long centered all their attention on La Unión the first two weeks of every August to follow the shows by flamenco’s biggest stars and see the winnersof the contests in dance, guitar and cante.
 On Thursday the 2nd, the virtual ribbon was cut and after an opening speech, last year’s contest winners performed.Friday the 3rd began at 8 in the evening with the presentation of a new book by the prolific José Manuel Gamboa, “Sernita de Jerez ¡vamos a acordarno! La memoria cabal de su casta”, a long name for a very interesting piece of work that fills a historic vacuum.
By ten P.M. the broad plaza in front of the “Cathedral of Cante”, the central market converted to a theater and which this year celebrates a hundred years since the it was originally constructed, was a hub of activity and noise.It’s something that accoompanies the presence of great stars, on this occasion, doña Sara Baras, the little girl from Cádiz who made good thanks to her ability, beauty and dedication, and who is now one of flamenco’s major figures.
A clean, strong, young voice, just right for certain cantes
 Julián Estrada, the singer from Puente Genil, winner of important prizes in Mairena and Córdoba, well-loved in La Unión, once again shared the bill here with Sara.He came with the excellent Córdoba guitarist, Manuel Silveria.Estrada’s voice is clean, strong and young, just right for certain cantes.He begins with trillas, a capella as is the custom, but guitar and percussion come in towards the end to morph into soleá and soleá por bulería.He followed with an assortment of mineras, the cante which most identifies the town of La Unión and its festival.“Let’s all go to Cádiz!” says the singer, and after a lovely guitar introduction, we do the trip thanks to the flavor of Estrada’s fine singing.As a result of Fosforito’s influence, Córdoba singers cultivate this repertoire with loving care.Malagueña del Mellizo leads to assorted cante abandolao – fandango de Lucena, rondeña, verdiales – anothe debt flamenco fans have with Fosforito.A synthesized piano introduction by Alberto de Paz brings us to tientos, ended with some lively popular tangos, backed up by the percussion of Juanfran.Milonga, a very appropriate cante for Estrada, and closing fandangos with a bit of unneccessary vocal fireworks is dedicated to Chano Lobato who is the object of this year’s tribute.
All the self-confidence and maturity of a true star
Sara Baras company: Guest artists: José Serrano, Luis Ortega.Dancers: Alicia Fernández, Cecilia Gómez, Ana González, Charo Pedraja, María Vega, Raúl Fernández, José Galán, Raúl Prieto, Daniel Saltares. Guitar: José María Bandera, Mario Montoya. Cante: Miguel de la Tolea, Saúl Quirós. Percussion: Antonio Suárez. Violin: José Amador Goñi.
 After intermission, Sara Baras and her company presented “Sabores”.Ten years ago the dancer brought her first company and show to this festival on its thirty-seventh edition, and tonight she returns with all the self-confidence and maturity of a true star.A dramatic bulerías presentation of all the members of the group, a dance of Luis Ortega with castanets, José Serrano’s alegrias and Sara’s martinete, as well as some fast-food choreographies for the group in between, is what makes up this slick show
A discreet “ole” for Sara for having abandoned the practice of sending huge kisses out to the audience (just one, in the bow) that used to mar her performances, but now, instead, there’s a distinct coldness, an extreme professionalism that does not tolerate failure and maintains the level of perfection via mathematical precision and complete absence of personality.It’s a pseudo-flamenco based on flamenco elements, and an overt desire to sell, sell, sell.Many of the dancer's admirers will object to that assesssment, but the bigger an artist is, the more we must expect from them. What came off at the 2006 Festival de Jerez as a polished, well-constructed show, has turned into a robotic product totally lacking in warmth, possibly the result of the packed calendar this successful company keeps which isn’t conducive to normal evolution and rather favors mechanical, unvarying repetition. Solo danceºs that are much too long, extreme excess of footwork, a shortage of cante and, since I’m telling it like it hit me, women dancers completely devoid of makeup, not even so much as a smear of red on their lips leading to expressionless faces drowned by stage lights, all this added up to a less than gratifying experience.Nevertheless, if anyone had been having trouble assimilating the mixed compás of flamenco, they left the theater perfectly oriented after an hour and a half of mercilessly reiterated hammerbeats on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12.
 After the theater, in the fresh cool night air of the plaza in front, we were able to come down to Earth with more flexible structures in the cante of Almería singer Rocío Segura, winner of the 2000 Lámpara Minera, accompanied by Pascual de Lorca, a final treat to end a full day at La Unión .
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