2024-04-23 09:25:06
Photos: Jorge Luis Borges
Text: Karla Castillo
The undisputed Diva of the Buena Vista Social Club, Omara Portuondo, recently turned 90, confirming her place among the legends of Cuban music as only she knows, from the stage, and now, she will give the first concert with an audience in Havana after COVID-19.
The concert that he gave to his followers in October, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, was filmed without an audience at the Sauto theater in Matanzas, and broadcast on Facebook, with guests such as the Faílde orchestra, the Muñequitos de Matanzas and Haydée Milanés.
However, the diva is back in the news with the announcement of the first live concert with an audience that will be held in Havana after the arrival of COVID-19, to celebrate the city’s 501st anniversary and the 90 years of the National Award. of Plastic Arts Alfredo Sosabravo, the latter being at the singer’s request.
The Covarrubias Room of the National Theater of Cuba is the site that will host the concert next Sunday, November 15, at five in the afternoon, a propitious moment for the declaration of Havana as a creative city of the Organization of Nations to also be officially delivered. United Nations for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), in the field of music.
Furthermore, another reason that invites us to the concert are Portuondo’s Latin Grammy nominations for the album “Mariposas” from the Bis Music label and from the young group, defender par excellence of our traditional music, for the Failde con tumbao album, from the Musical Recordings and Editions Company (EGREM).
Haydée Milanés will return as a special guest, along with the Verdarte company, to accompany Omara and show the public part of the Cuban diva’s repertoire, also shared in the online concert last October.
As will be customary in theaters now after the pandemic, public access will be limited, this time to 300 people, to comply with the physical distancing rules imposed by COVID-19.
Omara Portuondo, revered in the country as the “bride of feeling”, a genre born in the 1940s, is undoubtedly one of the great icons of traditional Cuban music.
She, along with other greats, such as Elena Burke, Moraima Secada and her sister Haydée Portuondo, was part of the D’Aida Quartet, led by Aida Diestro, and which accompanied stars such as Édith Piaf, Pedro Vargas, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve, Benny Moré and Nat King Cole, during the latter’s performances at Tropicana.
As should be noted, the pandemic did not stop the artist, and she released her album “Mariposas” on digital platforms, but she has also joined campaigns on social networks to promote hygienic-sanitary measures as prevention against the coronavirus.