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A Voyage to Andalusia Montreal
L’Olympia
11/10/2024 - & November 7 (Toronto), 8 (Ottawa), 12 (Vancouver) 2024
“Esencia Flamenca”
Castro Romero Flamenco Ensemble: Rosario Castro Romero, Ricardo Castro Romero, José María Castro Romero, Cristel Munoz, Jessica Molina, Ivan Ibancos (Dancers), Alberto Funes (Singer), Jesús Heredia, Román Oliver Mollá (Guitar), José María Uriarte (Percussions)
(© Roman Boldyrev)
Flamenco likely comes to mind when one thinks of Spain. It’s indelibly associated with it, along with such singular pursuits as tauromachy (bullfighting) or such culinary delights as paella. This irks some Spaniards, especially those not native to the south (Andalusia), from which this genre originates. However, this aversion is rooted not only in regional differences, but also in class and political orientation. When Flamenco became known in the early nineteenth century, the bourgeoisie viewed it with suspicion and contempt as vulgar and lascivious. During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, many Flamenco dancers and singers were on the Republican side, and were persecuted by the Monarchists. After Franco’s victory, the regime managed to appropriate Flamenco as quintessential to “proper” Spanish identity. In 2010, the artform was designated a World Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
The origins of Flamenco are said to be from the Roma (Gypsies) originating from Northern India who immigrated to Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries via Iran, Turkey and the Balkans, collecting musical influences along the way, notably from neighbouring North Africa and from Spain’s centuries-long Arab dominion.
Soulful Flamenco singing is evocative of the Arabic mawwal singing and has the typically Arabic melisma, or singing of more than one note per syllable. Vocal runs in Flamenco are also reminiscent of Indian gamakas with its ornamentation. Flamenco, one of the most astounding examples of the blending of cultures, has the distinction of having the Arabian Hijaz and Bayat scales. Flamenco’s bulería and soleá forms, noted for the stress on beats three and ten, parallel the North African (Berber) chaabi.
Female Flamenco dancing is reminiscent of Arab belly dancing and shares the delicate hand movements of both belly dancing and North Indian dancing, while male Flamenco dancing shares the quick legwork and tapping on the thighs of Rajasthani dancing, as well as the polyrhythmic hand clapping common in many Arab traditional dances. Flamenco is a blend of Roma, Arab, Berber and local influences, as the Roma settled in Spain during the last two centuries of Arab rule, characterized by convivencia, the intermingling and cross-culturalization of different religions and cultures.
The Castro Romero Flamenco Ensemble, one of Spain’s most renowned, is composed of six dancers (of whom three are siblings), a singer, two guitarists and a percussionist. Carlos Saura and Antonio Gades chose two of the siblings, Ricardo and Rosario, as very young dancers in the emblematic film, El amor brujo (1986). The three siblings have performed all over the world, with the world’s premier dance companies, including Moscow’s Bolshoi, Paris’s L’Opéra de Paris, New York’s American Ballet Theater, Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Ballet and London’s Royal Ballet. Rosario and Ricardo Castro Romero’s choreography and dancing dazzled in Bizet’s Carmen at the Bolshoi in 2015. Likewise, Ricardo’s choreography for the world premiere of Alexander Vuskin’s opera The Devil in Love (2019) at Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theatre was critically acclaimed.
The Montreal public is very much attuned to dance, whether classical, modern or traditional, which explained the absence of a single empty seat at the city’s historic and charmingly intimate Theatre Olympia. The city is also an avid enthusiast of world music, and is renowned for its Festival du Monde Arabe and Festival Nuits d’Afrique. Happily, this Spanish ensemble easily won over the Montreal audience from the first moment, with their spellbindingly relentless arsenal of unforgettable choreography, first-rate singing, elegantly athletic dancing, all accompanied by a polyrhythmic interplay (finger-snapping, clapping) that extended to each member, whether singer, dancer or instrumentalist.
The ensemble’s program was a generous and varied one. It opened with a lively fandango entitled Opium, which featured the entire ensemble, smartly setting the evening’s mood. This was followed by a rhythmic bulería, entitled Canela en rama, which demonstrated the dancers’ technical mastery. However, what matters most in Flamenco is passion, and that was palpable throughout. The following selection was a solo dance, Claveles, a slower paced guajira, performed by Rosario, who enchanted with her earthy yet elegant style and her delicately seductive hand movements.
Magnolia, an animated seguidilla, featured two female dancers and two male dancers. The seguidilla is characterized by animated footwork yet restrained upper body movement. The first half of the program ended with a solo number, Sándalo, a farruca, featuring Ricardo Castro Romero, who impressed with his agility and technical mastery. Farruco is an Andalusian appellation for a person from the Northwestern region of Galicia. This indicates the Galician origin of this musical form, despite its being indisputably Andalusian.
The second part of the program featured another bulería called Rosa de Mayo, and a soleá por bulería, Romero, featuring siblings Rosario and Ricardo. This signature piece, named after the Romero family, showed the great chemistry between the two. The movements of a soleá por bulería are rendered more intense due to rhythmic deceleration. This was the most remarkable moment of the evening due to its considerable intensity.
Two solo numbers, Espliego and Azahar, were masterfully performed by Ricardo and Rosario Castro Romero respectively. The former is a martinete, a flamenco song with either solo percussion or no accompaniment at all. The singer Alberto Funes was at his most ardent in this hauntingly memorable piece. The latter piece, Azahar (orange blossom), is a petenera, characterized by a 12‑beat meter with alternating strong beats. La Petenera is the legend of a woman singer who, thanks to her great power of seduction, was the “damnation of men.” Rosario enchanted in this number with the fluidity of her movements, sensuality and technical prowess.
The show ended with a jovial and animated finale, Yerba buena, with all six dancers and singer Alberto Funes. This number was an alegrías, a flamenco form with livelier rhythms for dancing and slower ones for singing. It was the perfect choice for the ensemble’s final piece, as it exemplified the essence of Flamenco: technically brilliant, soulful and intense, a true esencia flamenco. Bravo!
Ossama el Naggar
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