XV Festival Flamenco Caja de Madrid. Esperanza Fernández / Paco Fernández – Homenaje a Pedro Bacán Aluricán en azul y verde

Text: Manuel Moraga
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas Lara

The evening had the unmistakable aroma of Lebrija, because although she was born in Triana, half of Esperanza Fernández' bloodline runs through that Seville town.Naturalness and a laidback feeling were the order of the day, and a gypsy character inundated each and every one of the numbers.Truly a night to be enjoyed.

Esperanza brought her most gitana facet to the theater.This exceptional singer has been involved in a number of different undertakings throughout her artistic life, and lately she's been singing to the piano of Dorantes or with the jazz orchestra ofJean Marc Padovani.These are very polished cerebral concepts, but on this night it was a more genuine Esperanza Fernández, more faithful to her roots and to the world of flamenco which is the undercurrent of everything she does.Esperanza Fernández in the rough.Her voice wasn't as clean as on other occasions, which added wonderful color and forced her to wrestle with the cantes, much more moving.From the very first moment she radiated gypsiness, as did her brother Paco Fernández on the guitar.Even cantes like farruca sounded different.She warmed up in the soleá and gave still more in the alegrías and siguiriyas.The velvety voice sounded very gitana in the tangos de Triana, and she ended with bulerías in the Lebrija style, singing and dancing, a true delight.Paco was right on the ball, with a personal sound, very punchy and deliberate.His guitar is direct, not at all barroque, letting the singer breathe and picking up the cue at precisely the right moment.The audience was delighted.

And if in the first part Esperanza Fernández made no bones about her Lebrija heritage, the second part of the show went straight to the heart of that lovely town.Those people who know me are aware of my fondness for Lebrija flamenco, so my judgement is somewhat conditioned beforehand.But even so, I don't think it's any exaggeration to say «Aluricán en Azul y Verde» fulfilled the highest expectations.The work, directed by Tere Peña, is a tribute to that great guitarist, singer and wiseman, Pedro Bacán.

Sevi, Pedro Bacán's son, opened the show playing his father's guitar which he left leaning on an empty chair.Pedro's sister, Inés Bacán – sweetness personified – interpreted the first cante, a 'nana', straight from the heart.Her entire body was charged with emotion, it's not possible to sing a nana with greater depth.Next was Pepa de Benito with fandango por soleá, and Rafael de Utrera struggled through alegrías for Carmen Ledesma's dance.And so it went, everyone taking turns.Inés for example again shook up emotions with her siguiriyas with that odd mix of drama, opacity and sensitivity.A prodigy.The basic cantes of Pinini were also offered thanks to Pepa de Benito, who also sang tangos, and Rafael de Utrera was superb in the soleá he sang for Angelita Vergas' dance.The bulerías de Lebrija were wonderful with that delightfully relaxed, hypnotic and sensual rhythm.

It would be too long to go into all the great moments of this show, but we cannot fail to commend Antonio Moya and Curro Vargas on guitar, as well as the dancing of Angelita Vargas, Carmen Ledesma and Fernanda Peña.In actual fact, the whole thing was wonderful, right up to the good-natured dancing and singing in the aisles that let us get a feel of the greatness of these artists whose «secret» is the very origins of this music.Art is with them from birth, it's completely natural for them.Like they say in my town, «it's part of the landscape».

It's reassuring to find this kind of naturalness once in a while.Naturalness that escapes so many who have not been fortunate enough to have grown up surrounded by flamenco.I cannot overemphasize the importance of Lebrija for this artform, though not in detriment to any other nucleus.In that sense, and taking special note of the object of the tribute, Pedro Bacán, we must also remember artists like Miguel Funi, Manuel de Paula and Curro Malena among others.