Flamenco

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl

With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there

In the evening, we assembled once again in our designated meeting place. Ordinarily, this would have been no problem, but tonight the place was absolutely packed out: FC Sevilla had won the UEFA Cup the previous evening, and tonight was the victorious team’s tour through the city. Everyone was dressed in red and white – improvised in many cases, and many flags were being waved.

We managed to find our tour guides and set off away from the crowds to a hotel rooftop bar, where Lola (again) gave us the low-down on flamenco – how it was invented, then brought into the public arena, in the 18^th and 19^th centuries; and the Spanish population’s relationship to flamenco. All this over a refreshing glass of chilled manzanilla – the drink which is traditionally associated with flamenco. Flamenco was first sung by “gypsies”, in fact people of Indian descent who had travelled to Spain in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, and was for a very long time a private affair, only being performed in the homes of the poor people of the Triana. Eventually it was taught to a young boy of non-gypsy heritage, Silverio Franconetti Aguilar, who learned it at the forge of an old gypsy man. He then went to America to make his fortune, and on his return to Cadiz set up a “café cante” – a café with singing. This was so successful that he soon opened more in other cities, and others copied him. The flamenco style was brought to the public in this way.

Following the Peninsular War and independence from France, the Spanish people wanted an artform that was uniquely theirs, and so flamenco filled this role.  However under the dictatorship of Franco, who tried to co-opt flamenco as a representation of his regime, it fell out of favour with the ordinary people as it was identified with the dictatorship. It wasn’t until the 70s, after the death of Franco, that a revival began, and now it is again widely performed.

We then went downstairs and round a corner to Casa de la Guitarra, to see and hear an authentically authentic flamenco, with added authenticity. We were left in no doubt that this was authentic – no castanets or any of that malarkey. First up was a guitarist, then singer with guitarist, and finally singer, dancer and guitar. Then more singing and guitar, before the dancer returned in a change of costume for the grand finale. It is a very emotional performance – we were exhausted just watching it!

It was about 10:15 by the time this finished, so we turned a corner to find ourselves actually on the street of our hotel. We walked along to the little taberna opposite our hotel for a quick bite to eat before turning in for the night.