Noche Flamenca Notes.Indd

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM Saturday, February 18, 2006, 8 pm Sunday, February 19, 2006, 7pm Noche Flamenca Zellerbach Hall Martín Santangelo, Artistic Director Soledad Barrio, Lead Dancer Noche Flamenca Featured Guest Artists Martín Santangelo, Artistic Director Isabel Bayon Soledad Barrio, Lead Dancer Antonio Rodriguez Jimenez “El Chupete” Juan Ogalla Cantaores Manuel Gago Antonio Campos Guitar Jesus Torres Eugenio Iglesias PROGRAM La Plaza choreography by Martín Santangelo “La Búsqueda”—solea por bulerias Antonio Rodriguez Solo de Cante “Maria”—alegrias Juan Ogalla INTERMISSION “Por Medio”—jaleo Isabel Bayon Solo de Guitar Martinete Antonio Rodriguez and Juan Ogalla “Agarrar”—seguiriya Soledad Barrio Th is performance is made possible, in part, by the generous support of the members of the Cal Performances Producers Circle and Friends of Cal Performances. Fin de Fiesta Cal Performances thanks our Centennial Season Sponsor, Wells Fargo. 20 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 21 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES A BRIEF HISTORY OF FLAMENCO guitarist maintaining the rhythm, adding further to the syncopation. In some forms, like the cante Th e precarious conditions of the Andalucian libre (free song), the compás is less apparent, but singer of the past made it inevitable that he/ the singer may break into an established rhythm she should dwell on the more tragic aspects which the guitarist then has to follow. Indeed, of existence. Even though conditions are now the singer is at liberty to improvise, whether the incomparably better, the feelings inherent in the toque (guitar playing) is free or in compás, and the cante are universal and timeless and represent a guitarist may not know beforehand what is to be link between past and present. expected of him. Andalucia, the region of southern Spain Th ere is no evidence that the guitar was which is fl amenco’s home, has a strong musical initially used to accompany the cante, and even tradition documented from ancient times and today some of the most dramatic forms of cante are fl amenco certainly takes its place in that heritage. invariably performed unaccompanied. However, Th roughout the centuries, Andalucia absorbed it was certainly in regular use by the end of the peoples of diff erent cultures and backgrounds, 19th century and the guitar has an exceptionally including Romans, Jews and Moors. As far as long history in Spain, an early version probably fl amenco is concerned, the most signifi cant arrival being brought by the Romans. Th e lute was was in the 15th century when tribes of nomadic extremely popular in the rest of Europe during Gypsies settled in southern Spain. Th eir arrival the Renaissance, but was rejected in Spain as coincided with Ferdinand and Isabella’s conquest a foreign intrusion since it was of Arab origin. of Granada, the last bastian of the Moors, and Furthermore, the vihuela (the guitar’s predecessor) the subsequent expulsion of Jews and Arabs from was more suited to the accompaniment of ballads Spain. by strumming, since the lute requires notes to Historian Felix Grande, writing about life in be picked more delicately. It was also cheaper to the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, stated: “Th e produce and more robust. Jews were massacred, the Gypsies humiliated and In the 19th century, there were two types Choreography by Martín Santangelo and company members persecuted, the Arabs exterminated, the Moriscos of singing in Andalucia: the cante gitano of Produced by Martín Santangelo (converted Arabs) expelled, and the Andalucians the Gypsies and the cante andaluz. Silverio generally exploited…if we do not relate the Franconetti, an Andaluz of Italian origin and an Music Jesus Torres and Eugenio Iglesias music…to brutality, repression, hunger, fear, exceptional singer of Gypsy styles, was the fi rst to Vocal Arrangements Manuel Gago and Antonio Campos menace, inferiority, resistance and secrecy, then bring these two styles together. Th is integration Artistic Director Martín Santangelo we shall not fi nd the reality of cante fl amenco…it of both forms resulted in the cante fl amenco as it Lighting Design Adam Gabel and Kate Greenberg is a storm of exasperation and grief.” It was against has come to us—the end product being without Production Manager Kate Greenberg this background that fl amenco evolved. question greater than the sum of its parts. Company Manager Carlos Perez Vega Although earlier records suggest that fl amenco Th e wail of the cante jondo (deep song) was at one time unaccompanied, it is hard for us resembles the mournful chant of the exiled www.nochefl amenca.com today to imagine fl amenco without a guitar. In Sephardic Jews. Its poetry has the existentialist eff ect, the guitar forms an integral part of the angst and philosophical questioning common in General Management song; singer and guitarist are one creating the Arabic poetry. Th e dance, which evolved slowly, Jon Aaron cante. Th e diff erent types of cante provide the fully blossoming in the 1840s, suggests the fi xed Aaron Concert Artists basis for all fl amenco guitar playing. Most of the tonalities prevalent in Islam, the trance-inducing New York, NY cante has an underlying rhythmic structure which rhythms of Africa and the searching quality of aaronconcert.com must be strictly adhered to—the compás. One much Jewish music. of fl amenco’s chief characteristics is the complex Flamenco developed rapidly, gaining in artistic syncopation against the compás, with the cante stature as well as popularity. Establishments being sung almost entirely off the beat and the dedicated wholly to the performance of fl amenco 22 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 23 PROGRAM NOTES ABOUT THE ARTISTS appeared throughout Andalucia and beyond. Soleares: One of the basic cantes. One can say that Th eater, Lortel Th eater or Th eater 80—are always Th ey came to be known as cafes cantantes, coff ee the soleares is the perfect form of cante fl amenco, a smash. For its New York performances in 2003, theaters, where refreshment could be enjoyed where beauty and depth of feeling are in harmony. the company received the Lucille Lortel Award for while watching the performance. Th ey were Its rhythm (12 beats to the bar) has its origin in a Special Th eatrical Experience. Performances in the similar to cabaret theaters, with as many as four simple dance called jaleo, consisting of three beats season ahead include debuts in Atlanta, Charlotte, shows per day. Although some of them survived to the bar, with the emphasis on the third. St. Louis and Chicago and return engagements in until the middle of the 20th century, they had Boston, Denver and Montreal. past their heyday by the 1920s. Taranto: Song and dance from the province Some of Spain’s most renowned artists have Dance has always been associated with of Almeria. Th e fl amenco dance possesses two worked, and continue to work, with the company, fl amenco. It is diffi cult to imagine this music extremes: the profundity of a seguiriya, a solea or such as Soledad Barrio, Belen Maya, Alejandro without movement. While sophisticated fl amenco a taranto, and the wild, uncontained gaiety of a Granados, Antonio Vizarraga, Rafael “Falo” dance companies have been touring the world for bulerias. Jimenez and David Serva. more than 50 years, it is the raw, unchoreographed Noche Flamenca’s vitality, energy and passion dances of Andalucian Gypsies that has maintained Tientos-tangos: cante y baile festero, from the villages orn of passion and desire, Noche Flamenca have won accolades around the world, with raves the art form in its most creative essence. along the Atlantic seaboard near Cádiz. Th e name was founded in Madrid in 1993 by artistic and standing ovations in Egypt, the United comes from the old dances of that region, which Bdirector Martín Santangelo and his wife States, Canada, Portugal and Spain. Because the produced three diff erent fl amenco styles: tientos, Soledad Barrio. Th rough years of persistence, hard company’s core group of artists have devoted years FLAMENCO DANCE FORMS tangos and tanguillo. In the tientos, the singing work and love, Noche Flamenca has developed into to its goal, Noche Flamenca has continually delved used to be a simple statement, uncomplicated in one of Spain’s most successful fl amenco companies. deeper and deeper in its quest for a profound art. Alegrias: A lively dance from Cádiz. Th e origin style. Perhaps owing to the special interpretation Since its inception, Noche Flamenca’s goal has been is in the jotas of Cádiz—traditional folk music of certain singers, it became more and more to maintain the essence, purity and integrity of one of Aragon, brought to the Andalucian town by serious and developed into a very profound style. of the world’s most complex and mysterious art soldiers during the War of Independence in the Th e rhythm that the guitar provides is founded forms without the use of tricks or gimmicks. Th e early 19th century. Th e main characteristics of this on a basic 4/4 pattern, although it is continuously company relies on the high standards of its artists as style are the richness of its guitar accompaniment, enriched by subtle accentuations on diff erent well as their profound understanding of fl amenco. the intricacy of the dancing, the demands of its beats or off beats. In contrast to tientos, tangos is All aspects of fl amenco—dance, song and music— diffi cult rhythm and its lively sound. sparkling and sensual. are interrelated and given equal weight in Noche Flamenca, creating a true communal spirit within Bulerias: Th is developed like soleares from a Martinete: A austere and rhythmical interpretation the company, which is the very heart and soul of simply style.

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