It was the most anticipated show of the entire program of this I Biennial of flamenco from GranadaTickets sold out shortly after going on sale. Expectations were high, and they lived up to expectations. Marina Heredia is, today, the first figure of the cante From Granada, the one that sounds the most flamenco and the one that has best projected her career. I have no doubt about it. Added to this is her ability to innovate over the years, creating a language that moves with the times.
Add to all this the fact that it's been six hundred years since the arrival of the Roma to the Iberian Peninsula, and the cocktail now has all the ingredients to make it taste like heaven.
Marina presented her credentials in the best way she knows how, singing her own way. Along with the Granada City Orchestra showed us that the cultured and the symphonic fit perfectly with the flamenco As long as it's done honestly and wisely. This combination isn't new, but it's difficult for the result to speak for itself. And Marina achieved it. Despite the incomprehensible twenty-minute break between the two parts that separated her new show.
"Marina Heredia is, today, the leading figure of the cante From Granada, the one that sounds the most flamenco and the one that has best projected her career. Added to this is her ability to innovate over the years.
In a unique space like the Palace of Carlos V in the heart of the Alhambra, there was no choice but to stay with the message, a plea to the Roma people, to their persecution, to the genocide, not only of this people but to any of them, now that it is so topical. The ode to freedom, to the difficult path that the Gypsy people have traveled, was in Marina's voice a missile of peace and vindication of the unity of peoples, but also of suffering, of punishment. "We are the mistreated and hated race, repressed and hurt" was the refrain we heard both in the first part, along with the Orchestra and the musicians. flamencos that accompanied the singer, see José Quevedo Bolita, The Twins y Victor Carrasco at palmas and choirs, paquito gonzalez on percussion, as in the second, in which they collaborated David Peña Dorants y Eva Yerbabuena, along with the unmistakable voice of the actor and rhapsodist Juan Fernandez and the cante de Ezequiel Montoya.
The symphonic part began with the toasted and broken voice of Jaime the Parron, who sang from the palace balcony cantes of trilla and tonás with a zenithal that gave her prominence. The orchestra put its precise machinery into action so that Marina, with an especially clear voice, could reclaim her roots. Jose Trigueros With his baton he gave precise orders and fulfilled his role with finesse, organizing his musicians both symphonic and flamenco, in the alegrías, in the tangos, and in the lullaby. A beautifully crafted and superb soundtrack that at times seemed like the music of a Hollywood movie.
The twenty-minute break, as I said, was not liked by anyone or anyone. People coming and going, mingling and chatting casually, broke the musical tension that must have existed between the two groups. It's true that the orchestra chairs had to be removed and the stage re-arranged, but they went too far.
Thank goodness they were able to resume and redouble their efforts to get us connected again. The elf put it Juan Fernandez with his warm, intense and direct voice to the heart reciting Our bloodIt's a shame that the sound problems, which are taking center stage more than the artists themselves at this biennial, meant that Juan had to take off his microphone plush to recite at the top of his voice, which couldn't reach the entire audience. On the other hand, Juan is no stranger to the flamenco; we were able to appreciate his oratory in the show of Miguel Poveda Poem of the Cante Jondo, counting on Juan to embody one of the thousand Federicos that the singer from Badalona is giving us with his new premiere.
"The ode to freedom, to the difficult path the Gypsy people have traveled, was, in Marina's voice, a missile of peace and a call for unity among peoples, but also a cry for suffering and punishment. 'We are the mistreated and hated race, repressed and hurt,' was the refrain we heard."
With Dorantes' piano, Marina sang the farruca To Manolete to give prominence to Eva Yerbabuena's dance, who danced in a black dress and gold-embroidered shawl, soaring across the stage with the candor of wisdom and knowledge. Dorantes, in his field, is the master, and he let us know it. He was discreet as well as sententious.
Later, Marina performed a duet with Ezequiel Montoya My praying singing with absolute dedication. The tangos The Snow of the Years and John the Egyptian were the best choice to culminate their particular claim to the rights of the gypsy people, in this case embodied in the figure of a count, not me, but John of Egypt Minor, The first gypsy to cross the Pyrenees towards the Peninsula to leave behind the nomadic life they had endured for centuries and join the kingdom of Aragon. And with that route and through rumbas, the Catalan ones, the ones with the fan, Marina wanted to pay tribute to the Pescailla, a Peret and so many other Catalans who defended their particular way of understanding the flamenco.
Credits
Free! The Gypsy Way
Marina Heredia and the Granada City Orchestra
I Biennial of flamenco from Granada
Palace of Carlos V
18th September 2025
Granada City Orchestra
Directed by: José Trigueros
Cante: Marina Heredia
Guitar: Jose Quevedo Bolita
Percussion: Paquito Gonzalez
Palmas and choirs: Los Mellis, Víctor Carrasco
Special collaborations: Jaime Heredia el Parrón, Dorantes, Eva Yerbabuena
Narrative voice: Juan Fernández
Voice: Ezequiel Montoya
