On Thursday we went to the Cúpula del Campos, where the second series of concerts of the cycle called ‘Neguan Flamenco’ (flamenco in winter) will be displayed, focused on female artists and sponsored by the SGAE. This Thursday, 23-F, the Cádiz-born cantaora and guitarist Teresa Hernández participated, and next Thursday, March 2, the Extremaduran cantaora Celia Romero will do so.
Admission is free and we were shocked that there were only 70 people, when for example on Flamenco Fridays at the Teatro Barakaldo you don’t usually get less than a hundred souls at €18 per seat, but this SGAE cycle is so poorly advertised that It is not even promoted on the website of the Teatro Campos itself (neither on the cover, nor by clicking on the La Cúpula section).
It should be noted that Teresa Hernández, with an undulating, luminous, marine and modernist vocal style, gave her first concert playing and singing at the same time this Thursday. She was young and born in La Línea de la Concepción (the year is unknown), she is a back singer (accompanying the dance) and has spent years at the Tablao Torres Bermejas in Madrid, where she lives. In other words, more accustomed to not putting herself in the foreground, Teresa passed the drink correctly, with a certain shyness and good manners, although it was noted that her duet with the Argentine flutist Emilse Bartalay is not very filmed, because sometimes it seemed like a rehearsal.
From the public came a rude comment from a subject, supposedly close to the organization or the performers, who accused the spectators of coldness, but the truth is that the transmission from the stage was intermittent and the obligation of those who get on a tablado is to animate and even inflame the respectable, not the other way around. If the public remains cold, the fault, or the responsibility, lies with the performers.
Emilse Bartalay accompanied the transverse flute.
Oh. C.
That being said, let’s review the set, presented entirely by the woman from Cádiz. 8 cantes were played in 75 minutes, which curiously went by very quickly. And the debutante in both facets, singing and playing, she acknowledged just before she finished: «It has been wonderful. At first I was nervous because I didn’t know what was going to happen, but thanks for coming and supporting me.”
The best cantes were the second, a zambra something like Mayte Martín; the third and top of the event, the Argentinian zamba (now without r) ‘Alfonsina y el mar’, with a beautiful flutist intro, a rather folky vocal approach to the Spanish one, and good harmony between the minimal guitar and her voice; and the seventh and penultimate cante, a trio bambera with the addition of percussionist Darío Campos (the organizer of the cycle) and with the cantaora inspired, dedicated, and perhaps feeling supported by being three on stage.
The rest left you wanting more. The start of the fandangos with the flute was hesitant, without fully integrating itself and noticing that the guitar is not very jonda. The long, relaxed tientos-tangos were a compendium or paradigm of the evening. The bulerías with the flutist playing the leading role and without the guitar but with clapping by the leader seemed like the preparation of a work, that is, a rehearsal. And paradoxically, the closest thing to Teresa was the one that stood out the least: the guajira ‘El día que me quisistes’, which is her first single, released in May 2022 as she reported, adding that this song identified her although she intoned weakly. and he didn’t quite integrate playing and flamenco singing (a constant of the evening that if he sang well, he played the guitar in a very low profile, and vice versa), and the goodbye with alegrías from his land, also in a trio but with Teresa Hernández too collected, shy, this time without feeling covered.