VI Young Flamenco Festival "Villa de Benamejí"
Benamejí - Córdoba (08/11/2022)
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The youth gets flamenco
The land of Salvaorillo de Jerez, which also hosted the Niño de Cabra, is betting on young people.
Young Flamenco artists
- Espectáculo: VI Festival de Jóvenes Flamencos Villa de Benamejí
- Al cante: Alfonso León con Toto Escavias (percusión), José Muñoz alias El Toto y Miriam Montes
- Al toque: Ángel Mata, Juanjo León y Niño Seve
- Al baile: Lorena Doblas alias La Rubia, con Amparo Ramos (cante), Alba Espert (guitarra), Carmen Ureña y Andrés Jiménez (palmas), y Manuel Montilla (percusión)
- Lugar y fecha: Plaza de la Constitución, de Benamejí. 11 de agosto de 2022
Within the communication scene, it is well-known the role that EL MUNDO Andalucía edition has been playing in favor of young Flamenco artists, both in its daily print version and in digital journalism, where we stimulate their stability as a guarantee of the future, while advancing in the delimitation of their own forms of expression through knowledge, so that their faces never show signs of aging.
Also, Flamenco has its own territoriality, sometimes unknown to the leaders of Flamenco literature, such as the Villa de Benamejí, whose young Flamenco festival coincided with the 90th anniversary of 'La Duquesa de Benamejí', by the Machado brothers. The play premiered in 1932 and turned the town's residents into improvised actors, making this three-act verse play about the love and jealousy between the duchess and the bandit into something more than just a story. It became a significant cultural and social event that marks the identity of the town.
And from that relationship with 19th-century banditry emerged the Partía Flamenca, the festival that will celebrate its 42nd edition on September 10th, sponsored by the City Council chaired by Carmen Lara Estepa and organized by the Flamenca Peña Cayetano Muriel, named after the famous Niño de Cabra. He lived on Juan José Espejo Street after marrying Pilar Toledo García, and was one of the most important masters in the Cordoba territory. He passed away 75 years ago in the house where he lived.
But there is more. In 2022, it will be the 90th birthday of the former mayor and Flamenco expert Pepe Arias, which coincides with the three months since the death of the critic Francisco Moyano. These two Benamejicenses are united by their teaching and dissemination of Flamenco. Additionally, on Antequera Street in this blessed land, one of the glorious singers of the 19th century, Salvaorillo de Jerez, was born in 1844. He was a mentor to Don Antonio Chacón and the father of Salvaorillo Hijo, who mentored Antonio Mairena, the first Hijo Predilecto of Andalusia.
With this background, this festival for young artists is easily explained. It is a vital experience for those who want to live the scenic tradition and bet on their future in a singing field where personal experiences will be crucial. All of them are supervised by the guitars of Ángel Mata, Juanjo León, and the impressive Niño Seve, who not only brilliantly resolved the most cadenced and incisive passages but also brought rhythmic liveliness to the demands of the score.
The singing facet began with the inheritor of the duende of Campo de la Verdad in Cordoba, José Muñoz, El Toto Hijo, who has a devotion to tradition, with a preference for malagueñas. He then showed confidence in the soleá, and although he struggled to overcome the complexity of bulería, in which we noticed him being shy and nervous, he excelled in tackling the rhythm of alegrías.
Miriam Montes presented an interesting revision of the malagueña, eager to please in the zambra with tangos but revealing insecurity in the power of her treno. She then dove into the high tonalities of seguiriya, which was already so forced that she paid for it with a tired expression in bulería. However, she tried to provide intense liveliness while maintaining a rhetorical handling of dynamic contrasts.
On the other hand, Alfonso León appeared very accelerated in the caña and alegrías, with an unusual delivery no doubt, just like his colleagues. Later, he tended to showcase his credentials through bulerías and fandangos, where he enjoyed the majestic bravery of the brave variant of Alosno.
Finally, Lorena Doblas, La Rubia, a young and combative bailaora, gave a resignification of the senses with elegance and exquisite dialogue with the back, congratulating Alba and Amparo, through alegrías. She found the most suggestive adaptation to the style in the flight of the shawl and the maximum depth in the flight of the bata de cola.
In two hours and fifteen minutes, with extraordinary sound and perfect organization, the territory and the youth demonstrated the importance of contexts and senses, the volatility of singing and dancing expression in a youth eager to invoke the magic of live performance so that music can continue to stay alive.
And the platform for their concerns has been given to them by "that smell of Benamejí and sowing" with which Francisco Umbral looked at it in EL MUNDO, a village that generates Flamenco nicknames, such as the Syrian singer from the sixties who called himself Suren de Benamejí. Through this festival, they have the opportunity to have an artistic name on their business card, that of the village that gave them the opportunity to seduce, attract attention, and provide a personal contribution. And if it is also unique and inimitable, it's a bonus.
