From Jerez to heaven It is the title of a religious music show, from at least five years ago, about the products of Holy Week in Jerez de los Caballeros, an Extremaduran town that should not be confused with Jerez de la Frontera, the place of origin of Miriam Mendez, the pianist who has proposed a concert with the same name.
Méndez, nicknamed by the Asian press as The Princess of FlamencoShe is also a singer and actress, which means we are dealing with an artist capable of working in any field and who in the Jerez Festival He has appeared with his usual nickname, The Barefoot Princess, just like the novel by the American writer Christina Dodd (2007)
Furthermore, Méndez, who was born in Seville, has flamenco and classical training, as evidenced in the show. Atlantic: back and forth flamenco, Pilar Tavora (2002), or in his recordings Bach by flamenco (2005), the work of the German musician Johann Sebastian Bach adapted to the palos of the flamenco, and Mozart. Dream flamenco (2009), where he also adapts the music of the Austrian composer to flamenco meter.
And with the introductions out of the way, let's get to the heart of the matter. In a space with shortcomings that is not the most suitable for a show that embraces the genre that is now a hallmark of Spain, Méndez opened the evening very talkatively, reciting a poem – impossible to decipher the lyrics due to the lack of sound – or keeping time on a barrel, and in front of a venenciador who poured glasses with spectacular skill.
As for the piano compositions, which is what we went to hear, it went from less to more, beginning with a “collage” of seguiriya, Beethoven, the Hymn of joy, from his ninth symphony, and up to the My yeli, my yeli, of the gypsy wedding, all as discreet as when he tackles Bach's contrapuntal fugue, or the noble pulse he maintained in the The Nun's Ballad, The Black Man of the Port, with nuances that from the back row we associated with Adagio de Albinoni.
Everything unfolded with a discretion overshadowed by theatricality and by the overabundance of opaque and sensationalist philosophy, until he performed the flamenco soleá, unfolded with clarity and affection, as if in his hands and mind there was only one breath.
"Miriam Méndez is a versatile musician, as she handles the instrument with equal skill and even adds a little footwork to explain her interpretation, leading us to believe that her aim is to project a message beyond the performance itself, thus weaving a program that looks to the heavens, where everything is possible, even the impossible."
From that point on, Miriam Méndez raised the critical mood. While her voice isn't exactly a vocal masterpiece, she captivated us with her pianistic performance of other pieces, such as the bolero with a rumba feel or the sevillanas—pieces that were both gentle and sweet, combining good taste with skillful execution, an analysis she would confirm in the taranta with its nods to Mozartwhere the notes combine low registers with round ones, the singable with the noble lament, but without obscuring the main line of the composition.
There is a more vehement and sensationalist language in the parody he made of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, from the spaghetti western of the sixties of the last century, as well as the song from the film Pretty Woman which she adapts to her experiences in Madrid, or with Dime, Lole and Manuel, with which he paid homage to Manuel Molina, describing with this trio a story with sudden contrasts of affection to the richness of the melodic intervention.
Family stories and flamenco-style dances with chords that seemed to have come from Mozartian Austria, we reached the end of a concert-theater in which we found contrasts between passages of ardent verbal passion and others of silent pianistic fluidity, without ceasing to show the challenge of provoking admiration among her followers, who from the beginning appreciated the performances of the artist whom they did not stop complimenting.
It is obvious to point out that the fans, in general, enjoy their artist or family member, although sometimes they do not appreciate the musical perfections, such as the stimulating interpretation he made of the soleá, with very successful results, or the introduction of the taranta, to which he contributed energy and a good descriptive taste.
There is another trait to consider. Miriam Méndez is a versatile musician, equally adept at playing her instrument and adding her own little footwork to explain her interpretation, leading us to believe that her aim is to project a message beyond the concert itself, thus weaving a program that looks to the heavens –From Jerez to heaven, he titled the concert—, where everything is possible, even the impossible.
But without straying from the realm of piano playing, Miriam Méndez brings to different contexts a form of bubbling and divergent sonic bursts, which leads us to infer that she presents changing textures and concentrations, which perhaps explains why the spectator embraces her program from a wide dynamic range, a condition that weaves a resonant fluid deployed both from the natural progression of tensions and from the nuances and subtle details of the interpretation.
It is the formation of the narrative arc of Miriam Méndez, the Sevillian pianist who has passed through Jerez with a pristine balance of compositions, executed with a warm perspective, although not without reduced edges and soft reliefs.
Credits
From Jerez to heavenby Miriam Méndez
XXX Jerez Festival
La Gotera de Lazotea Theatre
February 23th 2026
Piano, dance and voice: Miriam Méndez, aka The Barefoot Princess
