New article about the 'cantaora'Antonia Contreras

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New article about the 'cantaora' Antonia Contreras

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DavidRG

Posts: 41
Joined: Dec. 12 2015

New article about the 'cantaora' Ant...

Hello, friends.
I've just written a new article about a show that I attended last saturday.
Since I'm not a native English speaker, I'd appreciate any corrections (grammar, vocabulary...anything you might think is wrong)
Thanks!

..........

Antonia Contreras at the Majadahonda festival (Madrid): five stars flamenco .

Last saturday, march the 4th, we enjoyed the show of the flamenco singer Antonia Contreras at the Carmen Conde House of Culture, in Majadahonda. This concert opened a new edition of the Flamenco Festival of this city, located in the region of Madrid, featuring artists like Carmen Linares, Joaquín de Solá or José Mercé.

Although we will be soon attending the presentation of her first album (we will talk about that tomorrow), this saturday Antonia came to Madrid to share with us her show "A la luz de tu cante" ('At the light of your singing'), created for the Bienal of Málaga in 2015; This show is a memory-tribute to La Niña de la Puebla from the Antonia's way of feeling. La Niña de la Puebla personally transmitted to Antonia the love for flamenco many years ago. As Antonia said on stage: 'This is not about imitating or copying La Niña de la Puebla, but about paying homage to her singing, passing it through my own way of feeling and singing'. In the theater of the Carmen Conde House of Culture in Majadahonda, Antonia was accompanied by Juan Ramón Caro and Andrés Cansino on the guitars.

Throughout the show, pictures of La Niña de La Puebla were projected on a big canvas, and we could listen to and old recording, with the voice of the artist herself, and a brief narration with the voice of her granddaughter, Adelfa Calvo.

The repertoire was based on some of the most popular songs of Dolores Jiménez Alcántara, La Niña de la Puebla, and also on other songs mainly unknown by the general public. We could hear styles like the milonga, serrana, sevillanas, fandangos de La Puebla, colombiana, petenera, seguiriyas, cantiñas de Huelva, bulerías and campanilleros.

Sometimes Antonia was accompanied by the guitar of Juan Ramón Caro, sometimes by Andrés Cansino and sometimes by both at the same time, which did not represent any problem for her, given the power of her voice. Antonia's voice is powerful, with a truly remarkable strength, she can fill the theater with almost no need for a microphone, but she has learned to modulate that strength according to the needs of every song. Thanks to that, her singing is full of nuances and expression. It may sound grandiose and epic or it can take us through more intimate and sweet passages. She is a really complete cantaora, given her musical talent and also the knowledge she has of the flamenco styles, even of the oldest ones.

Antonia has a great elegance on stage, and both the cantes and the staging are cared for in detail, something that shows that she respects her profession and the attending public, who was amazed and asked for more.

Having Antonia Contreras in this kind of festivals, alongside such figures as Carmen Linares or José Mercé, is great because the quality of her singing has nothing to envy to the best known stars. This is her kind of stage, the best flamenco festivals, the "five stars" flamenco, and I hope to see her always in these top level events from now on.