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X FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
March 11th, 2006
Text & photos: Estela Zatania
BLANCA DEL REY, FOSFORITO
Teatro Villamarta, 9.00 pm
Dance: Blanca del Rey. Cante: Pedro Montoya, Pedro Sanz.
Guitar: Curro de Jerez, Felipe Maya. Fosforito’s guitar:
Manuel Silveria.
The last day of the Festival de Jerez was devoted
to two well-seasoned veterans of dance and cante, both from
Córdoba. Blanca del Rey, with a long and admirable
career, runs one of the oldest and most prestigious tablaos
in Spain, Corral de la Morería. Antonio Fernández
Díaz, “Fosforito”, has had a brilliant
career over the course of one half-century from 1956, when
he made a clean sweep of all the first prizes at the Córdoba
contest, right up to 2005 when he was awarded the Llave
de Oro del Cante (golden key of flamenco singing) by the
Cultural Ministry of the Andalusian government.
 Before
the show at the Villamarta we were able to enjoy two young,
diametrically opposed female voices. Gema Jiménez
from Jaén, the most recent winner of the coveted
Lámpara Minera, used her delicately sweet delivery
to recall the sound of another era and fascinate the audience
with tientos tangos, siguiriyas and fandango por soleá
with the solid accompaniment of Eduardo Rebollar. Immediately
following, Jerez singer Raquel Benítez, with the
wonderful Pascual de Lorca on the guitar, offered her recital
of alegrías and an assortment of basic cante in the
Jerez line, thus wrapping up the series “Los conciertos
de palacio”.
At the theater the show got underway with Blanca in a black
bata de cola and using castanets. Just a few days ago dancer
Merche Esmeralda said nowadays young dancers like to dance
without so much paraphernalia, which is why we no longer
see castanets, shawls, fans and batas. Let us all give thanks
that Blanca del Rey never received the news. She uses castanets
with good taste to complement her siguiriyas dance with
no attempt at flash, and moves the bata de cola with absolute
authority.
The two guitarists take center stage to play their respective
solos and it comes like a flash…just as a child grows
and day by day you notice no change, so it is with fads
in flamenco which evolves at a slow pace to effect major
changes. There didn’t used to be cante solos in the
large dance companies, but rather guitar solos, and Blanca
follows the classical line on this as well. However, in
the age of Paco de Lucía we inhabit, a guitar solo
has to offer more than conventional falsetas and chords
because the palette of harmonies, rhythmic possibilities
and the technical level has advanced light years in the
last three decades. Nevertheless, everything is a preamble
for the centerpiece, the main attraction made famous by
Blanca del Rey: her pas de deux with a Spanish shawl.
It’s called the “Soleá del Mantón”,
a test of will between the dancer and two square yards of
lavishly embroidered, fringed silk. What for other dancers
is a decorative but cumbersome accessory to be shed as soon
as possible after appearing on stage, is for Blanca del
Rey her most engaging dance partner. The cloth comes alive
in her hands, it offers resistance and is tamed, it caresses
its human partner and suddenly rebels...reconciliation,
chastisement, pleasure and pain, the gamut of emotions...
The dancer and her shawl are inseparable lovers, a stunning
display.
After thunderous applause – no one is indifferent
to the hypnotic “Soleá del Mantón”
– Blanca is visibly moved. She thanks the organization
and the audience and has warm praise for maestro Fosforito
who is to offer his recital after intermission.
 The
man from Puente Genil opens the second part right where
Blanca left off, with a rememberance for his old friend
Paquera. We’re in Jerez and it’s easy to recall
the cynical opportunism of those singers who routinely dedicate
each performance to the most popular singer of whatever
town he’s in. This is not the case with Fosforito.
Antonio and Paquera were friends from the very beginning,
from the days in Madrid when they were working the tablao
circuit and shared numerous festivales.
The air in the theater is thick with a mixture of expectation
and apprehension. Some people are anxious to have the chance
to feel the vibration of the vocal chords of a historic
flamenco singer, others fear those same vocal chords might
not behave tonight. The singer’s voice is worn and
broken since some years ago due to the decades of service
rendered at summer cante festivals.
The soleá apolá he opens with sounds good
and his voice reaches the high tones that characterize these
cantes the singer has long cultivated. In the cantiñas,
another of the singer’s specialities, there was compás,
knowledge and flavor. You begin to notice the fine guitarist
he’s brought with him: Manuel Silveria, also from
Córdoba and unknown in Jerez, excellent with the
cante and impressive in the introductions and falsetas.
The theater is half empty for the first time since the festival
began. Absurd and sad, the same thing happened when Agujetas
sang last year, inconceivable.
Fosforito struggles with his voice, and the very struggle
adds flamenconess and raises gooseflesh. Petenera, tientos
and taranto, also cantes touched by the singer’s creativitiy
and which he interprets with the care and dignity that have
always characterized his work. He announces bulerías
and Jerez furrows its collective brow, but Fosforito comes
through with flying colors thanks to his famous compás
and Cádiz cante. The Key opened the door of good
cante and there is an encore of soleá. The old maestro
retires from the stage leaving behind the memory of his
voice to finally close out the tenth Festival de Jerez.
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