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XLVII Festival Internacional
del Cante de las Minas.
Israel Galván “Edad de Oro”, Enrique Morente
Sunday, August 5th, 2007. La Unión .
La Unión - © DeFlamenco.com
Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas
The fourth day of what is turning out to be an excellent and well-balanced program at the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas, once again began with cultural activities. Journalist Manuel Curao presented his multimedia work “Los Flamencos Hablan de sí Mismos (I)” published by the International University of Andalucía, and featuring dialogues recorded during the last Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla with such noteworthy participants as Chano Lobato, Matilde Coral, Lebrijano and Manolo Sanlúcar among others. A second part is already in preparation.Cultural awards were also presented in the specialties of Prose, Journalism, Investigation, Recording, Visual Art and Teaching, in addition to two special awards.
José Mª Castaño / Teo Sánchez |
Paco Paredes |
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At 11:00 PM at the “theater-market-cathedral”, Israel Galván again stirred up an audience with his work Edad de Oro, accompanied, as always, by two extraordinary artists, singer Fernando Terremoto and guitarist Alfredo Lagos. It’s an elegantly simple equation: three colossal artists add up to one impeccable, hermetic and original show.
 Perhaps the most revealing proof of the quality of the work is that Edad de Oro becomes more enjoyable with each viewing. I’ve seen it five times and never stop discovering nuances nor marvelling at such efficiently expressed concepts. It’s a look at the past of flamenco, with no absurd imitations or saccharine sentimentality, a destructuring and recomposing of the fundamental elements of cante, guitar and dance.
Three colossal artists add up to one impeccable, hermetic and original show
But that’s quite enough intellectualizing, Edad de Oro is, as any show people pay money to go and see should be, a delightful experience from start to finish.Shouts of “ole!”, bursts of applause and sincere laughter are heard throughout the presentation in answer to Israel’s intelligent forms and creativity. In the first place, he wears the badge of artistic integrity with absolute innocence, and this alone is refreshing in an age when many people’s desire to make it to the top of a dynamic but difficult market, tends to surpass their need to contribute something of worth.Israel takes full advantage of his solid foundation in the most traditional sort of dance to parody hackneyed movements, to the extreme of reinstating them as new and valid. He’s always pushing the limits, and thanks to his perfectly calibrated sensitivity, he knows exactly how far he can go.He thrives on the grotesque, chews it up, digests it and gives it back to us as first-class art. Israel hears voices the rest of us cannot detect until they pass through his fertile mind.
The originality and aesthetic of the forms he creates never cease to fascinate.If for other dancers you have to take 20 photos to get one really great shot, with Israel every take produces a perfectly balanced composition. Notewothy, if we must highlight something in this exceptional show, is the free-form fandango Terremoto sings point-black to Israel who seeks, searches and finds... and I have an intense dislike for dancing to free-form cantes (it tends to produce silent-film histrionics and zero flamenco). It’s an intense minute during which time one might forget to breathe. With Galván time is deformed and loses dimension, dances of sixty to ninety seconds don’t come off as short sketches, but as complete pieces – the trite phrase “perfect jewels” seems unavoidable in this case.
 The alegrías is the most conventional dance within this unconventional work, and the characteristic power of flamenco lives up to its reputation.This is the last leg of the journey, and we’re brought back to square one with a somewhat altered conscioussness. If other works of Israel Galván are hard to defend (that’s putting it mildly), I’m thrilled to comment on this one again and again because all efforts to adequately describe it, fall short.
Another incurable revolutionary was in charge of the second part. Enrique Morente, Granada man, flamenco singer by profession, flamenco mystic by vocation, received the festival’s tribute three years ago, and now he returned to La Unión with a limited back-up – David Cerreduela on guitar and Bandolero on percussion – to delight his numerous fans.
Some people may not realize that when we read a press release about a certain artist’s professional background, that text was written, or at least approved by the artist himself. So these communiqués give important clues to the objectives of the person in question. Because it’s not only important to consider the aims of the individual in order to evaluate the degree to which they have been fulfilled – it’s obligatory.
Included in the information journalists received for Enrique Morente, one reads: “…a desire to assimilate and interpret the most difficult cantes and styles, in addition to a concern for becoming a cantaor with a wide repertoire not bound to specific schools or locales”. It’s accurate to say that is a mission amply accomplished, because Morente has deep knowledge of classic cante, while he is citizen number one of Morenteland.
Then it says: “Non-conformity and strict adherence to the foundations of cante”. Non-conformity, you bet, but as far as strict adherence to the foundations of cante, a definition would be needed of what they are in order to judge whether or not the goals have been achieved.
Citizen number one of Morenteland
 “A breath of fresh air, a revolutionary who broke the mold, inspired new forms and triggered the breaking-up of rigid forms that had a strangle-hold on flamenco”. Now that’s going too far indeed. It’s simply not possible to attribute the opening-up of flamenco to anyone other than Camarón de la Isla, nor was there any such strangle-hold. In fact, the whole idea of flamenco having been artificially limited is as absurd at the fictitious “hermetic period” or even Antonio Mairena’s “razón incorpórea”. As long as there was no official state bulletin that prohibited cantaores from singing anything they well pleased, we have no choice but to accept that twentieth century cantaores, in private as well as commercial venues, sang exactly as they wished.
As far as the show, it was pure Morente, with a certain inclination towards classic cante, always with his unmistakeable mark, building freely upon an existing base. Unfortunately serious problems with the sound system marred the show. A sweetly precious malagueña that held a thousand people in rapt silence, a surrealistic, dreamlike soleá and a well-constructed song based on alegrías were, for this reviewer, the highpoints of a long and varied recital.
And if anyone was still in need of more flamenco, there was an after-hours cante recital in the plaza with Jesús Chozas accompanied by guitarist Antonio Carrión.
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