The first two days of Cabildo Flamenco from Archidona They have exceeded the expectations they had already aroused upon seeing their magnificent promotional poster —designed by José Luis Solís—, which promised to transform the town in Malaga into a cultural hub of profound significance. It is a beautiful town, nestled in the mountains, boasting an enviable historical heritage, its own unique cuisine—I dream of their molletes (a type of bread roll)—and natural landscapes whose beauty is sublime when the sun sets over the olive groves. In addition to all that, we have been able to enjoy lectures by leading researchers and performances by top-tier artists.
It all started with a speech by the mayor, Juan Manuel Almohallawho emphasized the importance of a unique festival in Spain's cultural landscape. Then, the professor José Luis Nuevo He captivated us with a lecture dedicated to the biography of Emilio Lafuente y Alcántara and to the popular songbook he published in 1865. He recited several of the collected verses and highlighted the importance of rescuing popular literature from the shadows of oblivion, so relevant to historiography and so significant to today's society.
After the conference, we went down from the Municipal Exhibition Hall to the Municipal Theatre to listen to some of the seguidillas and coplas from the songbook, sung by Sebastian Cruz, who had to replace a sick person Dew MoonHe is an extremely versatile flamenco singer: he collaborates on the avant-garde project Open Front And, when she wants to, she sings. flamenco He played the traditional guitar exceptionally well, as he did for all of us. He was accompanied by the exquisite guitar of Jose Luis Medina...a truly accomplished guitarist whose name I first heard at this Cabildo. Regarding his talent, José Luis Ortiz Nuevo didn't hesitate to tell me the following while we were having some beers after the event: "This guitarist is a machine, like all of them nowadays. The guitar is at a level..."
The second day began with a keynote address by Ramon Soler, which was attended by almost two hundred students from the IES José Navarro y Alba and the IES Luis Barahona de Soto de Archidona, during two sessions held in the Carmen Linares AuditoriumHis words, in a way, responded to the recent call of Antonio Banderas to bring culture closer to young people, to offer them something that will force them to put down their addictive mobile phones. Her presentation, El flamenco in the popular songbook of Lafuente and AlcántaraIt relied on audiovisual resources that captured the attention of a teenage audience who could see how the coplas and seguidillas of that songbook manifested themselves in the repertoires of great masters of flamenco: Chano Lobato, La Perla de Cádiz, Pepe de la Matrona, Antonio Mairenaamong others. We also discovered that same nineteenth-century popular songbook in the voice of Lolita Flores in his very famous song Saradonga:
When I had money,
I was called Master Tom.
Now that I don't,
They just call me Tom.
"Belén Maya needs no introduction or any adjective to describe her excellence, because what she does is beyond words. Her dance movements seemed to explode on stage in millions of colors, like a sunset in Archidona."
But it wasn't until the second night of the Cabildo that the festival's identity was revealed to all attendees through the dance of Mayan Bethlehem, in a surreal spectacle, Morente sang LafuenteThat flamenco dancer needs no introduction, nor any adjective that attempts to measure her excellence, because what she possesses is something beyond words. Her dance movements seemed to explode on stage in a million colors, like a sunset in Archidona.
These colors also became musical notes thanks to the guitar of a promising young player of this instrument, which is extremely difficult even to tune, whose mastery demonstrates a wisdom uncharacteristic of someone who is only twenty-one years old: David of AnnaNor did I hesitate to praise the cante of the teacher Antonio Camposexquisite at all times.
The show was directed by Dr. José Javier León, professor of the Interuniversity Master's Degree in Research and Analysis of Flamenco at the University of Granada, best known for his authorship of a dozen books, several of them about flamencoOn this occasion, he took to the stage as director and actor of a play that explored the intersections between the songbook of Lafuente and Alcántara and the cante de Enrique Morente in an innovative way, and in which he revealed his own theatrical talent.
What inspired that young man from Archidona in the 19th century to compile the couplets and seguidillas that he later published in a popular songbook? No one can say for sure, but he surely discovered in those canteHe was a popular figure who wanted to explore and share a part of himself with others by publishing a songbook that some publisher should reissue. Thanks to his work, and that of the organizers of the Cabildo Flamenco from Archidona, we have been able to participate in the dialogue that the flamenco It maintains a connection with other artistic expressions and also with its past, which, in my opinion, is the best way to glimpse the future paths of an art in full effervescence. ♦
