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Text & photos: Estela Zatania
La Union’s Festival Internacional del Cante
de las Minas kicked off on Thursday the 4th with a keynote
speech by Fernando Delgado, the performance of last year’s
contest winners and the popular “velada trovera”.
For those people not on top of Roman numerals beyond the “X”,
“XVL” means this is the 45th edition of one of
the most important yearly events in the world of flamenco.
 The
first concert of the five scheduled began with a bang with
Belén Maya and Mayte Martín. “Flamenco
de Cámara” is the title of the work these two
women put together a couple of years ago, taking it round
the world with great success. The show is an reaffirmation
of flamenco’s roots, and a statement about the need
to express them through contemporary eyes that are not necessarily
Andalusian since Mayte is from Catalonia in Northern Spain
and Belén, aside from having been born in the United
States, is the daugher of the great Granada dancer Mario Maya
whose experimental nature contributed to the evolution and
updating of traditional flamenco dance.
A discreet soleá opens the show – overall, “Flamenco
de Cámara” is based on the rejection of flash,
on technical perfection and absolute sincerity. Belén’s
dance is sensual, cerebral, flirtateous at moments… Nearly
always geometric – more than dance, Belén Maya
sculpts, but the high relief is softened by ocasional moves
which are surprisingly sweet and apparently ingenuous. Perhaps
that’s the mark of great artists: the ability to manage
opposing concepts in perfect equilibrium.
The mark of great artists is perhaps
the ability to manage opposing concepts in perfect equilibrium.
The audience of La Unión is especially fond of sentimental
cante, and the clean, flexible and perfectly tuned voice of
Mayte Martín, as well the ease with which she delivers
the most complex vocal arabesques, is the lady’s permanent
key to succes in these parts. She’s clever enough to
offer cante solos that include a vidalita, an old-style guajira
and a garrotín, a sort of “three aces”
of so-called “cante bonito”, and few people nowadays
do it better.
Belén revives the dance of tientos that has fallen
by the wayside in recent decades. Here she shows off her command
of the ‘bata de cola’ and ends with tangos where
the Granada influence is unmistakable.
 A
guitar solo by José Luis Montón gives way to
Belén’s alegrías which incorporates the
violin of Olvido Lanza. The orange-yellow dress worn by the
dancer is a brilliant touch that complements the refreshing
perspective of a dance that goes down like lemon ices on the
beach in Cádiz in mid-August…in flamenco, as in all
things, well-defined flavors are a delight. The dancer recalls
dance postures of earlier times giving them credibility with
her impeccable good taste and a wall-to-wall smile that says
she loves what she does. Mayte Martín treats us to
a string of oldies but goodies from the Cádiz repertoire,
ending with the traditional verse “Dios mío quién
fuera blanco, aunque fuera catalán” [“Oh
how I wish I were white, even if I were Catalonian!”]…god
bless Mayte’s sense of humor.
A violin solo feels like a time-filler…it’s unfair
to make artists competent in their respective fields present
their work at innappropriate moments…and the show ends with
taranto and rondeña finale. “Flamenco de Cámara”
is a little flamenco jewel, perhaps a bit overworked after
so many performances, but based on sure and admirable elements.
Chano always manages to get us
all, young and old, Spanish and foreign, eating right out
of his hand
 Viva
Chano! What an artist, how elegantly he carries the years
and how we enjoy every little thing he does. It’s impossible
to write a serious critique of the maestro from Cádiz.
In fact it’s quite a job to say anything at all about
him not already known by flamenco-lovers everywhere: that
the essence of Cádiz has been distilled and inhabits
the person of Juan Ramírez Sarabia “Chano Lobato”.
His appearance on stage triggers a warm ovation, and those
who applaud out of pity – the man is pushing eighty
and has a fragile appearance – are in for a surprise,
because Chano always manages to get us all, young and old,
Spanish and foreign, eating right out of his hand. There are
other voices for the “basic” cantes…Chano’s
is the one that most handily delivers alegrías, cantiñas,
tanguillos, bulerías and other Cádiz delights.
The nearly inaudible speaking voice sounds as if issuing from
a flamenco Pavarotti with the first sung line, and the frail
form which moves with difficulty, somehow takes on life and
dances with energy and gusto. Flamenco is a powerful rejuvenating
force and Chano Lobato is the best living example.
He apologizes to the local audience before singing “the
cantes of this area, but to bulería rhythm, nice and
slow, because singing Levante cante is very hard”. Tangos
accompanied by Paco Cortés in E position, “a
tidbit of soleá”, cantiñas that include
classic alegrías, romeras and the Mirris cante preceded
by the anecdote of how Ignacio Espeleta invented the famous
“tiri ti tran” to disguise the fact that he was
unable to remember his words: “some invention, the guy
was drunk as a lord!” Cartagenera leads, as promised,
into bulerías and a rumba finale – when Chano
Lobato steps away from the mike to sing unamplified, you can
hear a pin drop – with the most delightfully mischievous
dance ever seen, and we’re all thinking the same thing:
“that’s how I want to be when I’m his age”.
One curtain call…and another and another… If the singer
went a little over the top in recent years, that’s all
now forgotten because the man has no time for superficiality
and even the most festive cantes have all the substance of
the best siguiriya interpretation another singer might offer.
 When
the little hand on the big clock is coming up on 2, an intermission
is announced before the second half and it’s like at
Christmas dinner when you’re ready for a nap but they
bring in the second turkey. It was a mistake to schedule such
a long program and most of the audience fails to return for
Manuel Cuevas and his group. The singer from Osuna who two
years ago carried off the festival’s coveted Lámpara
Minera has put together a show that sins in its blatant yearning
to bring the house down, with a gorgeous dancer as green as
spring wheat, with the imitation of formulas employed by others
– pretty young girls singing chorus, instrumentation,
percussion – and vocal pyrotechnics that pulled the
wool over no eye left in the nearly empty theater. It is with
deep regret we report that this man’s hard work and
sacrifice is for naught…not even Caracol’s “Niña
de Fuego” could save the show and we continue to savor
the excellent taste left by the first half.
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