ViejoAmargo -> RE: Rafael Riqueni (May 13 2017 17:38:35)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Piwin Looking forward to it. but... it's starting to get ridiculous how they always manage to bring his personal problems to the fore. The man isn't "back". Sure, he disappeared for almost a decade after his brilliant Alcazar de Cristal in 1996, and we all know why. But he's been back since around 2007 and pretty much at the same rythm ever since. Sure he had a stint in jail but after a few weeks he got tercer grado so he could keep on touring on weekends even while he was still technically in jail. The man inaugurated last year's Biennal de Sevilla for Christ's sake. He was up in Madrid last summer several times and has done occasional shows here and there since then. He's around as much as he wants to be. Hell, if I had to face this wall of self-indulgent pity everytime I did a show, I'd just do like El Viejin and disappear entirely. I'll end with a prediction: Riqueni's going to play during the 2018 Biennal, and, oh surprise, people are going to be saying that he's "back on stage again". Interesting perspective Piwin... I'm a newcomer to flamenco and the first time I heard of Riqueni when he was about to be released from jail on "tercer grado" in 2015, and the whole of Spain seemed to be in tears of joy at the good news. I had the sense that everyone thought that it had been a "great injustice" to send Riqueni to jail, apparently because whatever crime he committed had to do with his ("now cured") health (mental?) issues... By the way, Riqueni was scheduled to open the Bienal in 2016, but had to be dropped from the program a few days before the festival got under way. I gather that he may have ran foul of his tercer grado conditions (because of his mental issues resurfacing, apparently?) and sent back to jail again, before he could perform at the Bienal... I guess a lot of people just love the idea of a gifted artist being a "tortured soul" or something, adds to the mystique I suppose... [8|]
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