Farruca in the States

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>General >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

Kate

Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía

Farruca in the States

I was very surprised to read this review of Faruuca in Miami, especially after hearing from Ricardo how fantastic he thought the show was.

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/music/story/929478.html

The comments about Farruca's aunt being to big to dance, the statement that the guitarists and singers could not carry a show. I had heard there was a Farruquito backlash in America. Agents there advising dancers not to put Farruquito on their CV for example, and of course Farruquito himself is not welcome, and i wonder if this review is also a reflection of that attitude.

The reviewer is obviously an Estrella Morente fan, he manages to mention her twice, singing her praises in this review of another show entirely.

_____________________________

Emilio Maya Temple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CA6OBC
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emiliomaya

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 4 2009 5:02:26

henrym3483

Posts: 1584
Joined: Nov. 13 2005
From: Limerick,Ireland

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Kate)

i didnt see the show, so i can't comment on the dancing but maybe the person was not a fan of "de pura cepa" baile. faruquito's baile is a gitano and pure as you can get and it is mesmerising to watch him. his brother el farru is a extremely competent and accomplished bailaor also.

re the backlash maybe it's because of the hit and run incident but i doubt there is a conspiracy to put down the farruco clan in the world of flamenco baile. re the comparison with estrella morente, maybe the journalis usec it as a comparison model for the dissapointment at the show.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 4 2009 5:18:00

Kate

Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to henrym3483)

Henry I didn't see the show either but totally trust Ricardo's opinion and he loved it, particularly praising the guitarists. I have seen Farruca dance and Farruquito and the family and I love the big women in the show, as you say this is Gitano, they are not trained choregraphed dancers. To me it seems churlish to compare the Farruca family with Estrella Morente as they are worlds apart.

The American backlash against Farruquito is definitely due to the hit and run. Before that he was voted on of the most beautiful men in the world by Time magazine and America could not get enough of him. I understand his downfall all things considered but I was really shocked that dancers are being told not to mention his name in their CV if they want to get bookings and this review saddened me.

_____________________________

Emilio Maya Temple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CA6OBC
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emiliomaya

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 4 2009 6:03:32

Ricardo

Posts: 14832
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Kate)

Yet another example why I take what I read about flamenco with a grain of salt. People are entitled to say what ever they want about anything in this world, regardless what they understand about it. In the end, all their words accomplish is to reveal what their level of understand and perspective is, to people that REALLY know and still bothered to spend time reading it.

By the way, Faraona had the "stuff" it takes for bulerias, more than the rest that night. Of course bulerias is not everything in flamenco, but it matters to those that know.

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 4 2009 9:08:08

Trev

Posts: 47
Joined: Aug. 25 2005

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Kate)

I just saw this show at UCLA Royce Hall. Honestly, I would agree with nearly everything the reviewer said.

La Guitarra.
Top notch. I was very happy to finally see Antonio Rey in action and hear some of his falsetas. He an excellent dance accompanist. But what did bug me was that they performed an extended Ziryab. As in Paco's Ziryab. Why? Paco wasn't on stage. They couldn't do anything original to fill in the time. I don't get it. I would have rather heard Antonio's Tarranta for example.

El Cante
Good performances from what I could tell. I only wish that Mara Rey sang more. I personally really like her style and sound. However, as far as really digging it. That was hindered by the elusive fourth component of flamenco performance......

El Sonido
It Sucked. It was WAY TO ****ING LOUD! Hard to really feel that emotive singing when your ears are clipping. It was painful. The easiest of all sound problems to remedy is that if it hurts your ears...it's too loud. Simple. It was really hard to stomach at times. As I was walking past the mixing console position to leave, I actually considered telling the guy what I thought of his work, just as this guy in front of me goes: "Hey man. Thanks for saving a little bit of my hearing. Appreciate that." Mmm sarcasm. My ears are still mad at me.

El baile:
Obviously, the dancing was great......of which there really was only about 30% of the entire nights performance! WTF? They barely broke a sweat. Barely. This is the Farruco family right? We came to see some great dance AND choreography. And see it in loads. They was no choreography whatsoever. Just a typical tourist espectaculo. This was like a show they would put together to tour around the pueblos for outdoor festival season shows or something. Or like in Sacramonte for the tourists. Yeah Farruco can bust a move like no one else but the show itself needs to be elevated to another level when seats are $60 a pop.
La Faraona, seriously...she shouldn't have been on stage for more than a minute. As comic relief. It was sad. She was on stage for 15 minutes at least during Siguiriyas, meandering around lifeless. I failed to see the arte. Ya no soy gitano ;( All my wife(Spanish) could say: "This is a joke right?" I couldn't have agreed more. She had beautiful hand movements (all two of them) to be sure, but so what? She could barely lift her heels off the floor. Save that for a juerga. We paid $60 a seat! Yeah said that already.
A frustrating night all in all. All that talent on stage yet didn't elevate above the sum of their parts.

_____________________________

el_palido

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 5 2009 0:01:31

Kate

Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Trev)

Sorry you didn't enjoy it Trevor, appreciated your personal review though if you were expected choregraphy you're better off seeing Sara Baras or Joaquin Cortes. The Farrucas just dance, much more spontaneous and yes as you say more like a juerga. Shame about the sound. We had the same complaint when we saw Farruquito recently, we blamed the theatre but found out later the sound technicians were actually the from his own crew. Wonder if for your show it was the theatre's own crew or they actually took Spanish sound men over to the States to get that authentic bad spanish sound

Ah well, anyway here's a pretty good review from that same night.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/03/los-farruco-rev.html

_____________________________

Emilio Maya Temple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CA6OBC
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emiliomaya

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 5 2009 2:59:15

XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Kate)

Are there any videos of that show?

_____________________________

Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 5 2009 3:03:40

Ricardo

Posts: 14832
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Trev)

quote:

La Faraona, seriously...she shouldn't have been on stage for more than a minute. As comic relief. It was sad. She was on stage for 15 minutes at least during Siguiriyas, meandering around lifeless. I failed to see the arte. Ya no soy gitano ;( All my wife(Spanish) could say: "This is a joke right?" I couldn't have agreed more. She had beautiful hand movements (all two of them) to be sure, but so what? She could barely lift her heels off the floor. Save that for a juerga.

Like I said, it matters to the people that understand those pellizcos. Many aficionados don't get the point of the disorganized gitano way to perform, but for others that improvisational element is the beauty of it all. About sound, well, it can depend where you are sitting in relation to the speakers. I would say, if is the same sound guys (I think it was cuz Farru thanked them personally from the stage as if he brought them as part of the group) that the sound was the best they could do with given equipment. I mean flamenco is NOT classical music. I have been at shows where the dynamics of it all overwhellemed certain sensitive audience members. I for one love loud music, or rather, I am really frustrated when I have to strain to hear the soft dynamics. I like music in my face. But that is just me.

Ricardo

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 5 2009 14:38:45

Trev

Posts: 47
Joined: Aug. 25 2005

RE: Farruca in the States (in reply to Kate)

quote:

Like I said, it matters to the people that understand those pellizcos. Many aficionados don't get the point of the disorganized gitano way to perform, but for others that improvisational element is the beauty of it all.

I guess to expand my point. Would be to say, that if you are bringing a juerga. Bring a juerga. Rent a space and we all interact like, you know, in a juerga. Ponme otra tinto... Otherwise bring a show, a performance.

My best estimate is that farruco was only on stage for max 20min. That's weak.

As far as the sound goes. My day job is film sound. On of my areas of work is in system tuning of mixing studios and theaters. I know the gear. I know the venue etc. But too loud is too loud. I feel you on wanting to hear thru the entire dynamic range. And have some impact from the amplification itself. This was over the top though. My ears are still ringing now. Every clap, rasqueo, vocal, was just an assault.

On the flip side, with that kind of power, I bet Antonio was digging it. It probably felt like he was playing thru a Mesa Boogie.

Trevor

_____________________________

el_palido

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 5 2009 22:48:34