Navarre’s festival devotes its 12+1 edition to the era of the Ópera Flamenca, with a programme that bridges tradition and the avant-garde, bringing to Navarre names such as José Mercé, Mayte Martín and Yerai Cortés.
It may not be possible to condense the entire history of flamenco into four chords, but it is possible to recognise one of its defining traits: the so-called Andalusian cadence. La menor, sol mayor, fa mayor y mi mayor — A minor, G major, F major, E major — trace a harmonic progression that has shaped the music and the sensibility of a whole territory. “It is a point of origin, because the guitar develops through those chords, and also a point of return: when guitarists and flamencos wander down other paths, the Andalusian cadence always brings them back to the root,” Arturo Fernández, director of Flamenco on Fire, explained in an interview. And that is the sonic journey this edition proposes, with the flamenco guitar as the great protagonist, wrapped in cante and baile.
What began as a homage to the Navarrese guitarist Agustín Castellón Campos — better known as Sabicas — has grown into one of the great festivals of the genre. Flamenco On Fire is as rooted in the Pamplona summer as San Fermín itself, and from 21 to 29 August it reaches its 12+1 edition, a deliberately superstitious figure with which it continues to revisit the history of flamenco. Where last year focused on the genre’s origins, this second chapter lingers on the years between 1925 and 1950 — the era of the Ópera Flamenca.
The name may be misleading, for that period had more to do with the tax office than with opera. Classifying shows as “ópera” allowed promoters to reduce their taxes, a practice that became customary at the time. The curious thing is that this roguish dodge led to far deeper changes: it made it possible to bring great figures together on a single bill, and to take flamenco from patios and cafés to theatres and bullrings, broadening both its repertoires and its audiences. A diversity of spaces and styles that lives on in the festival today.
Viana, Estella-Lizarra and Pamplona. Flamenco on Fire spreads its sonic map across different towns of the Navarrese landscape. The Catalan singer Mayte Martín will open the cycle at the Ruins of San Pedro de Viana with Arqueología de lo puro, an exercise in collective memory that pays tribute to the masters of the genre. Tracks from In illo tempore — her new flamenco record, 26 years after leaving the genre behind — may also be heard. The following day, the festival moves to the Gardens of the Espacio Cultural Los Llados in Estella-Lizarra with Sandra Carrasco and David de Arahal, who will present Recordando a Marchena. Accompanied by dancer Ana Morales, the original duo ventures into the melodic universe of Pepe Marchena, rebuilding his pieces with a fresh and original architecture.
The Baluarte Auditorium will host Pamplona’s major concerts. In Canta a Manuel Alejandro, José Mercé will make the composer’s repertoire his own: a dialogue between flamenco’s compás and songs that form part of Spain’s popular memory. National Dance Award winner Manuel Liñán will present Muerta de amor, a moving piece that explores desire, intimacy and the need for others. Yerai Cortés will close the cycle with Solo, a recital that returns the guitar to centre stage to explore, from tradition and nakedness, all its possibilities.
Flamenco On Fire keeps its feet planted in tradition while seeking new paths for the genre. The Escenario Siglo XXI has become a gateway for newcomers, with an eclectic programme that flirts with jazz, electronics and experimentation. The great landmark of this year is the absolute premiere of Tres Orillas, a cross-border artefact in which Rafael Riqueni’s guitar converses with Tim Ries’s saxophone and Ana Moura’s fado, conjuring a fresh and exciting dialogue. Also on the bill are Cervatana, with their irreverent approach to the guitar, and Rosario La Tremendita, presenting Tránsito (Huyendo del ruido), an electric and personal proposal that once again places flamenco on risky ground.
When night falls, the mythical Hotel Tres Reyes is transformed into a clandestine tablao around the jondo, and each of the artists takes it somewhere so different that it is hard to believe we are talking about the same genre. Pedro El Granaíno will open the night with that agonising, Gypsy-rooted cante that seems to well up from deep within; Águeda Saavedra will carry it into the body with a dance of clean lines and millimetre precision; El Pele will lay on the table the freedom and wisdom of someone who has made the genre his own for decades; and Paloma Fantova will close the cycle with an untameable magnetism. Four nights to test how far a genre can be stretched without ceasing to be itself.
From 21 to 29 August, Flamenco On Fire will turn Pamplona into the improbable capital of flamenco. It is worth going through the programme at leisure and taking note.
Photo by Susana Girón
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