La Seville Biennale, the Jerez Festival, the Malaga Biennial… It seems that they all join the bandwagon of offering in their programming proposals that outline the different edges of the flamenco, wanting to appear more modern, original, different, and sometimes even provocative or daring. But it didn't go that far. Traces of Poems, Alicia Morales y Alvaro Martinete. The Granada artists used a voice and a guitar to corset the verses of poets like Lorca, Rosalia de Castro, San Juan de la Cruz, Alberti, Miguel Hernández o José Luis Ortiz Nuevo in a repertoire of themes, which do not canteYes, very songful.
The true fan who came with his ticket looking for the pellizco It left as it came. The offer included A handful of caresses, tests and experiments in a well-toned throat, with tuning, taste, speed in the voice, a wide tonal range and strokes flamencos. I won't be the one to fence off creativity. That's what art is. But that wasn't what I expected at a festival of the jondo, even though the accompaniment and cataloging of the pieces fit between the branches of that tree of the palosAnd despite Alicia's undeniable singing quality and the hard work that can be sensed behind it, my ears were glued to the guitar throughout the recital: Álvaro Martinete gave us an evening of true mastery. Sensitive in his compositions, resounding in his fingering, precise in his picaos, neat in his tremolos, falsetas and tiraíllos, and essentially substantial while also being helpful to the cante of Morales, to which He offered him six rivers of silver so that he could lay bare with cloying softness all his splendorous musical ideals whose lyrics he had to reread from the papers placed on a music stand, a gesture I've never liked in any of the flamenco performances I've seen where this technique has been used. Fortunately, there have been few.
"Despite Alicia's undeniable singing talent and the incredible work that can be felt behind it, my ears were drawn to the guitar throughout the entire recital. Álvaro Martinete gave us an evening of true mastery. Sensitive in his compositions, resolute in his fingerpicking, precise in his picaos, and polished in his tremolos, falsetas, and tiraíllos."
The honors to Dying They are becoming a toll in Granada. Hence, their echoes became blurred, slipping in every now and then between the melismas and the conception of the themes that Alicia wove.
The sonanta trilled alone over the woodwork. Then Morales appeared in immaculate white from one side of the stands. He tuned The cry of the guitar, heart wounded by five swordsAnd to the beat that Álvaro arranged on the striker of the bajañí lid, The singer warmed up her throat, wandering through seguiriya airs, light and proper. Martinete's solo in granaínas was magnificent., preluding the melodic renewal that Alicia gave it, crowning it with abandolaos and standing out in the jabera.
He took on the challenge of navigating other stories in the soleá Dark night, distorting the black sounds of tradition while at the same time feeling in the search for new sensibilities. Alvaro melted the molasses of the flamencos in an extraordinary guajira dedicated to his mother, set to music from the depths, from the most heterodox corner of orthodoxy. A recitation by Morales, choruses, and the jingle of Huelva led to the shores of Chorros through fandangos. Very different, but fandangos nonetheless. Continuing along this drifting path, the rondeña sounded, and the recital ended. Selling flowers, a creation that moves between the tientos and tangos of Granada that he included in his album The Crystal Bride (2019)
Alicia Morales and Álvaro Martinete bravely gave a new twist to the traditional winds of the flamenco. Most of the audience remained standing, demanding another performance, and this critic, crestfallen, his skin lulled only by warmth and a sugar rush. I didn't want more, but something different, because in the saturation of discourses seeking novelty in poetry collections and musical originality, there's a forgetting that it's already been done in a thousand ways. And in the end, modernity turns out to be a return to the roots to recreate them with the refreshment of interpretation and the imprint of someone who has what it takes to say something about this. I don't deny the subject's a bit of personality, but it doesn't capture me convincingly. Given what I've seen and heard, it was just one more thing.
Credits
Traces of Poems, by Alicia Morales and Álvaro Martinete
1st Granada Biennial
Federico García Lorca Center, Granada
21th September 2025
Cante: Alicia Morales
Guitar: Álvaro Martinete
