John: The Flamenco Concert.

In the evening at the end of our first day in Barcelona we went to a Flamenco concert at the magnificent Palau de Musica. I was awake most of the night afterwards, thinking about how wonderful it had been and how could I ever get it across to you how moving and unforgettable it had been, without it sounding like some meaningless rave, or some boring Flamenco 101 tutorial. Perhaps the best way to do it is to write it in sections, so that you can read the bits that interest you. So here goes. 

SUMMARY. This was probably the best performance of flamenco, or any other music and dance concert that I have seen, or probably ever will see. There was something for everyone. Pure flamenco.(100% emotion) and modern dance and ballet using flamenco steps and gestures. 

INTELLECtTUAL, EMOTIONAL AND CREATIVE ELEMENTS. 

Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen once wrote, 

"When words end music takes over." 

This concert was a perfect example. No writer could put into words what happened at this performance. 

An equally famous tango musicIan also wrote, 

"If the tango can't express it - it doesn't exist"

In this case substitute the word flamenco.

This type of music is also referred to as "Fire music." 

At this performance both the stage and the venue almost went up in flames!

"Flamenco Fire."

PERFORMANCE PART OF IT. 

Not only do great flamenco artists draw people into their performance, they also have the ability to drop the audience into a different mood with just a few sung words, shifts in rhythm, dance steps, or a couple of strokes of the guitar. Not only should individuals be able to do this, but the company as a whole. These changes being done so seamlessly, that the audience only realise that they have been taken on an emotional roller coaster when the whole thing ends. By the end of this concert I was both exhilarated, and to use a good old Aussie term "as wrung out as a wet rag!"

STORIES AND SCENES FROM THE CONCERT? 

Although the stories are about the gypsies who developed this form of music, the stories and the emotions in them are universal. In this music all the elements are heightened and intensified. I.e 100% raw emotion. You don't get let off the hook!

Perhaps the most intense scene for me, was performed by the young female dancer dressed in black in the photo below. As her dancing became ever wilder and uninhibited, so the three male singers moved in closer like a wolf pack. There were lots of "I want, we want" in the singing, and the intentions of all parties was quite clear. I think it will be the first and only time I will ever see one woman having intense, almost violent sex with three men at once, in dance form.

Yet another scene was based on the other end of the emotional scale. The intense yearning of loneliness and jealousy. An older woman sees her former lover in the arms of a younger woman. 

She wails "Just kiss me once, and we will be happy again. I will make you more happy than she ever can."

The gypsies also used flamenco music as religious music. In prayer and religious songs, God is addressed as "Senor" the same Spanish word for "Sir" If you ever get to hear the Credo from "The Missa Flamenco" you will hear what I mean. 

In this performance the male singers gave a moving example of this. 

 

TO SUM UP. 

A wonderful, exhilarating, exhausting night. Both performers and audience were very, VERY happy! at the end of it.

The next day we arrived in Granada, where the great poet Frederico Garcia Lorca put all this Andulusian passion and torment into poetry and drama forms. When  I catch up a bit more with this blog I might settle down with a nice bottle of Rioja (red wine), and read one of his plays. Ah me, life just gets better!