Often when writing and thinking about this matter of flamenco We wonder what criteria should be considered when evaluating this art: how it's made? Simply how it sounds? The way of embodying other bodies? Of feeling possessed? Of feeling possessed by that something that isn't there but is felt? pellizcoThe goblin? These questions don't await answers either. We went to the show with the desire and intention of leaving with our hearts ablaze, like someone who has gone to see the sea.
A somber bet. The artists in pristine black, except Caracafé and his guitar, keeping the note while wearing a blue suit and tie, being the only one who will be seated during the hour and a quarter that the show will last.
En The Child of Elche The technical skill behind her voice continues to amaze. «The Voices of the Voice», as the singer says Fatima Mirandawho has been Paco's teacher. The singer from Elche takes great care of his vocal instrument, offering us a myriad of variations that remain undeniably flamenco in their material form: portraying vocal problems, from a whimper to a hiccup, from a tearful cry to a shout, vocal ailments or those affecting the surrounding environment, all of which demonstrate the vulnerability of the body that produces it, and how it moves back and forth between memories and new learning. His vocal range is extensive; he appears comfortable with soleares played open and free, as well as with tangos played without a capo, or with sevillanas at the sixth fret. This tonal variety demonstrates the interpretive capacity of his vocal instrument.
The show is motivated by the admiration that the singer from Elche has for the gypsy genius Manuel TorreIt explores the various styles that the Jerez-born singer embodied some one hundred years ago, with the extreme sensitivity that characterized him. Soleares, bulerías por soleá, tangos, saetas, seguiriyas, Manué's campanilleros, guajiras, verdiales, fandangos, alegrías, and some gypsy tarantos in the style of rumba. All of it underscored by that quintessential flamenco tension between sorrow and joy, mourning and celebration.
The sweet and understated guitar of the newly awarded Commendation of the Order of Civil Merit, Emilio Caracafe, making an ideal companion to the whispers and stormy flashes of Niño de Elche, containing in his hands and in his guitar a gypsy and modern style, typical of that Triana which was expelled some seventy years ago towards The Three Thousand Homes From Seville. From Las Tres Mil emerged a new generation, new ways of working flamenco, between Amadores, Bobotes y sticksA group of people who knew how to give that neighborhood its own unique character, a character that continues to thrive today. flamenco, as a way of doing, as a way of being, as a way of living.
"Niño de Elche, in his voice, in his voices, embodies a body that is many bodies. He creates a sensory map that makes us lose our way, because, as García Lorca says, voices are heard from nowhere, and it is useless to worry about where they come from."
The painting was accompanied by Jorge Peralta y Peter Martinez, which accommodated palmas And voices, encouraging and breaking into a few saetas and tonás. All this in the atmosphere of a party room, a ritual space where friends gather for enjoyment. With lighting designed by [name missing] that helped immerse us in the mystery and fantasy. Azael Ferrer.
The four horsemen led the way across the eastern stage Cante Gypsy style to an engaged and connected Cantabrian audience.Musicians!, go for it!, I love you!, olé!», could be heard among the two hundred people standing in the room of the Santander Stage.
«Flamenco, flamenco, flamenco, flamenco»The artists cheered, as the lyrics of the tonás followed one another. The term «flamenco» He was doing "olé." They were saying «flamenco» instead of ole, The word repositioned, mutated. We remember what it sang Pastora Pavón: «"Ole" is a word that has no explanation.»An exchange of meaningcantethat increases the meaning, flamenco like ole, flamenco expanded, that transmission, that contagion. A flamenco that animates, that is the subject, the one who sings, and in turn is the emotion that it produces. A flamenco which is not just one thing. «The ole/flamenco It's like something that comes from the heart.», that bulería continued The Girl with the Combs.
Niño de Elche, in his voice, in his voices, embodies a body that is many bodies. He creates a sensory map that makes us lose ourselves, because, as he says Garcia Lorca, «Voices are heard from nowhere, and it's useless to worry about where they come from.»It is important to bring up Lorca, as there is a direct correlation. Lorca, listening to Manuel Torre, developed the concept of duende, saying of him that he is the artist with the most culture in his blood, turning the Jerez native into a myth and his way of transmitting it into philosophy.
That thing called duende connects us to a place of agitation. A moment when something shakes us, when the body reacts to what has already happened. As the poet from Granada said, we don't quite know where or what it is. Therein lies the power of it. flamencoFrom the spirit, in the capacity to stir emotions. To be able to pierce the walls of our body, of our bodies, which are not one, but several and which are always in constant change, with the intention focused on emotion, emotion made form. A doubt, a shock, a commotion, agitated as by a wave of the sea.
Credits
Cante Gypsy style, by Niño de Elche
Santander Stage, Santander
February 21 2026
Capacity: Half full
CanteThe Boy from Elche
Guitar: Emilio Caracafe
Palmas and voices: Pere Martínez and Jorge Peralta
