Miguel Poveda en Catalunya Arte Flamenco – Auditori de Barcelona

Poveda, right at home

Text: Silvia Cruz Lapeña
Photos: Ana Palma

Cante: Miguel Poveda. Guitar: Juan Gómez ‘Chicuelo’, Jesús Guerrero . Piano: Joan Albert Amargós. Percussion: Paquito González. Palmas: Carlos Grilo y Luis Cantarote.

Miguel Poveda closed out the third Ciclo Catalunya Arte Flamenco with a full house at Barcelona’s Auditori, and there was an endless series of encores demanded by an audience that last night made very clear that they adore the singer from Badalona.

At the front entrance you could already tell how much they wanted to see and hear Miguel.  His followers wanted it all, and they got it.  There were couples, people alone, whole groups who had traveled from afar to see him and many older ladies who kept shouting “what a hunk!” and other things it would not be fit to repeat.  An assortment of people as varied as the genres the artist interprets.  And there were few young people, which jives with the shortage of novelty, although Miguel sang well, at ease and with plenty of taste.  Right at home, which is exactly where he was.

Poveda started out at the deep end with a journey through the provinces of Andalusia – alegrías, bulerías and malagueñas.  But the high point of the first part was the tientos which he sang true to tradition, and without limiting himself…that was where the real Miguel came out.  Poveda offered a tribute to the great maestros: Chano Lobato, Mairena, Marchena, Paquera, Camarón and even Morente.  But in the tientos he took off the mask and showed us his best face, his wonderful voice, the precision, the knowledge and poise.  In tientos he did what he knows how to do…amazing things, travelling though the melodies at his leisure and driving the audience wild.  That was where he gave everything with that clean open voice that made its way through the Auditori, winning over anyone who might have had doubts.  And he did it with the greatest of ease, slicing through our hearts and souls in a flourish of Miguel Poveda at his best.

And then came the lyrical songs.  He changed outfit, and returned very smartly dressed, seeming at times like a real crooner, other times Miguel de Molina, and he managed the impossible: he made us forget about Juanita Reina when he sang “En el Último Minuto”.  It was in this interpretation that Miguel showed there’s something he does better than anyone else: silence.  And his silence created expectation, he inspired foreboding and finished off the song with a perfect theatrical flourish and the stage was his playpen.  He did a little dancing and set the audience on fire with his movement of hands and feet, although it must also be noted that Chicuelo was on guitar (this man’s sensitivity deserves a Nobel), and the compás was taken care of by Carlos Grilo and Luis Cantarote: with that kind of backup even statues can dance.  Cantarote deserves special mention.  It’s as if he’s stomping on grapes from his hometown of Jerez rather than the floor, because he is completely enthralling, the speed of his jaleo and feet and hands goes beyond anything a machine could do.   

But getting back to Miguel…  In an interview before the concert, the singer claimed he was afraid of letting people down.  It’s only to be expected that someone as young as he is with a street named after him in La Union no less, might feel overly in debt with the people who applaud him.  But, and although it’s true that last night Poveda turned lyrical song into flamenco and made cante appealing to the masses, he did too many different things while offering little that was new.  It’s also an incontestable truth that he’s good, extremely good, and he knows exactly what he’s doing.  That’s why I’m anxiously awaiting “ArteSano”, the new recording he’s scheduled to present in just a few weeks and in which he assures us he’s doing the kind of flamenco that he likes and feels like doing.