50 Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas – Miguel Poveda 'Sin Frontera'

Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

Continuing with the philosophy of sparing no expense on the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Festival of La Unión, Tuesday was the day of Miguel Poveda, currently the biggest star in flamenco singing, with his excellent work “Sin Frontera”.

At eight in the evening, and featured within the cultural activities, the book “La Unión, Historia y Vida de una Ciudad Minera” was presented, and popular TV personality Jesús Quintero received the Premio Extraordinario for audiovisual arts.

In the Cathedral of Cante, everything was set to receive one of the festival’s most beloved personalities; Miguel Poveda would even have a street named after him the following day.  Seventeen years ago, on this same stage, at the age of twenty, Poveda began his extraordinary journey to the highest rung of his profession after receiving four prizes, including the coveted Lámpara Minera.  The young singer has evolved spectacularly since then; a Lámpara Minera, regardless of the prestige it brings, is no guarantee of success.  He’s worked hard at it, and all the more admirable is his success, given his Catalonian background because flamenco, unfortunately, continues to be an elitist localist art.  But the overwhelming raw talent of Miguel Poveda, and his affectionate personality, have toppled all the barriers, “even” in Jerez where he has learned to circulate in the ambience and add dimension to his considerable gifts.

“Sin Frontera” is a pseudo biographical celebration of those experiences.  The young man begins with his mining cante, comes into contact with the flamencos of western Andalusia, most notably his much-admired Luis Zambo, and with a little imagination, right before our eyes, the two flamenco worlds not only meet, but revel in each other’s nature.  It’s a very apt topic for our globalized times, but more importantly, Poveda has made it all function while managing to avoid clichés and over-statement.

Eight men in total.  Jerez is represented by Zambo, Moraíto on guitar, the dancing of Andrés Peña and the compás of Luis Cantarote and Carlos Grilo who share the stage, a wooden table and various bottles of sherry with Catalonian guitarists Chicuelo and Juan Ramón Caro, as well as Poveda himself.  The compás and sounds of Jerez cross with the melodious singing and repertoire of Miguel.  Poveda’s mineras, levanticas, tarantas, cartageneras and abandolao, the tasty bulerías pa’ escuchar and tonás of Zambo with verse about Tío Borrico included, and the magnificent dancing of Andrés whose compact controlled intensity is a poem of good flamenco taste.

They embrace, raise their glasses to toast, and the fiesta follows its course much to the audience’s delight.  Many others have tried to reproduce the feeling of a group of friends having informal flamenco fun on stage, but the result tends to be an indigestible confusion of thwarted good intentions.  This “spontaneous” fiesta, staged and rehearsed in just the right measure, is the most faithful representation of an evening of cante among friends, and a model to follow if we’re going to hold back the onward march of ever more lavish and bizarre theatrical works centered on flamenco, a genre which is quite self-sufficient with just good singing, dancing and guitar, knowledge and plenty of love for the art.

The audience begs for more and more.  The image of Poveda singing to his own dancing opens a long drawn-out fiesta finale, tangos of Triana, bulerías in minor key, “Sevilla y Jerez”, Peña’s bulerías dance without guitar or singing raises the temperature still more, the good-natured dancing of the guitarists and palmeros, Poveda singing mining cante to the compás of Jerez and in a friendly facing-off with Zambo por soleá, “Alfileres de Colores”.  The applause meter shoots off the scale, and it all comes down to a celebration of the brotherhood of gypsy and non-gypsy, east and west, flamenco as it’s best enjoyed: “Sin Frontera”, with no borders.

More information:
Special 50 Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas.