Big names in flamenco will attend the LXII edition of the Las Minas International Singing Festival. There will be three great cantaoras who will pass through La Unión in the month of August: Estrella Morente, Carmen Linares and Marina Heredia, voices that will make the ‘Cathedral of Cante’ -the Old Public Market of the municipality- once again imbued with quejío and feeling. The dances of Polito and Los Vivancos and the fusion of Guadiana & and Pedro Ojesto complete a set of galas that will give way to the prestigious contest that will present the new ‘Lámpara Minera’.
The Corral de la Morería in Madrid was the setting, once again, for the presentation of the program for this edition of Cante de las Minas, which has had Antonio Ramírez, director of Institutional Relations at Corral de la Morería, as master of ceremonies , which highlighted the “so important work that the Festival has done for flamenco during these 62 years”.
“It is not a music festival without more, but acts as a true promoter of flamenco art”, added the director of the Support Unit of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (Inaem), David Donaire, during the presentation. The program was unveiled by the president of the Cante de las Minas Foundation, Pedro López, who highlighted how “an honor for the municipality of La Unión has this cast of very important flamenco artists to delight us with their art.”
Presentation of the program of the LXII International Festival of Cante de las Minas in the Corral de la Morería
Cante de las Minas Festival
![Main image - Presentation of the program of the LXII International Festival of Cante de las Minas in the Corral de la Morería](https://s2.ppllstatics.com/laverdad/www/multimedia/2023/04/28/Foto%201%20presentacin%20programacin%20Cante%20Minias-U57453600120rae-748x524@La%20Verdad.jpg)
The galas will begin on August 3 with the show ‘Contraste flamenco’ by the Guadiana & Pedro Ojesto Trío, who will be accompanied by the Coral Argentum and the Unión Musical de La Unión. After more than twenty years collaborating together, they will present a new vision of the most traditional flamenco songs with an updated sound that makes an eclectic and minimalist search for the genre.
The next day the proclamation will take place, which this year will be given by Gonzalo Wandosell Fernández de Boadilla, writer and official chronicler of La Unión, as well as Dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences and Business at UCAM and the Entrepreneurs Chair of the academic institution. The ‘Winners’ Gala’ will also be held on the night of August 4, which will bring the holders of the highest awards from the contest from the previous edition back to the Cathedral of Cante: Esther Merino Pilo (Lámpara Minera), David Romero Cardoso and Irene Lozano Ruiz (male and female pushback), Ángel Bocanegra Ocón (Filón) and Álvaro Mora (Bordón Minero).
The galas will begin on August 3 with the show ‘Contraste flamenco’ by the Guadiana & Pedro Ojesto Trío, accompanied by the Coral Argentum and the Unión Musical de La Unión
It will be Marina Heredia who will open the galas with female voices of this edition with ‘Marina Heredia en concierto’, on August 5th. He will offer a highly varied tour of the wide repertoire of flamenco songs, among them the Cantes de Levante and those native to the Nasrid capital, such as the tangos of ‘Graná’ or the fandangos of the Albaicín, in which he will show his technical and artistic mastery .
Carmen Linares celebrates ’40 years of flamenco’
On August 6, the Festival hosts a double gala by Polito and Carmen Linares, sponsored by the newspaper LA VERDAD. With the show ‘Y tú’, Antonio Moreno Fernández ‘Polito’ takes a tour of his intense professional career from 1991 to the present, showing a unique staging characterized by elegance and avant-garde that will reveal the energy and virtuosity of him on stage.
Carmen Linares makes a stop at La Unión with her concert ’40 years of flamenco’, an essential repertoire that has elevated her as a living legend of flamenco, to the point of winning the 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. Carmen is accompanied by the jondura of her guitars and the sound of her palm trees from Triana to capture her anthology of women’s songs por alegrías, soleares, fandangos, tangos and mining songs, singing the identity of Andalusia and the dramatic essence of poets like Lorca and Miguel Hernández.
The artist highlighted during the presentation of the program that the Festival “is a benchmark to follow, because every year it improves and there are artists with great careers who have come from there.” “It is very important that there are these types of Festivals to encourage artists and that young people come out,” she added.
On August 6, the Festival hosts a double gala by Polito and Carmen Linares, sponsored by LA VERDAD
The last two galas prior to the Festival contest are presented with two more than well-known names in the world of flamenco: Los Vivancos and Estrella Morente. With ‘Los Vivancos Live’, the brothers present their most personal production on August 7 in which they bring together the best of their three shows: ‘7 brothers’, ‘Aeternum’ and ‘Nacidos para Bailar’, toasting immortality on stage of art, ballet, contemporary dance, folklore, martial arts and tap dance, enveloped by physical strength and romantic fantasy. The musical diversity and the cinematographic atmosphere characterize this show with a careful staging and a set design that position it as “the best of his artistic career.”
The finishing touch will be put by Estrella Morente, on August 8, in a concert that will take a tour of “pure flamenco”, through styles such as the seguiriya, taranta, bulerías and tangos, among others. The cantaora returns eight years after being the announcer of the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas in its 55th edition and delighting the public with her art for two years in a row within the program. In addition, the Festival awarded her the highest distinction, the ‘Golden Frame’, in 2014, the same year that Carmen Linares received it. Nine years later, both cantaoras are once again present on the program of the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas.
Contest
Once the galas are over, on August 9, 10 and 11, the semifinals of the contest of the LXII International Festival of Cante de las Minas will take place, the essence of this flamenco event. After going through the different selective tests that will be carried out these months in different provinces of the national map, the selected artists will fight to get the coveted awards granted by the Festival: the Mining Staff, the Feminine and Masculine Desplante, the Mining Lamp and the Reef. The final will take place on August 12 at the Old Public Market of La Unión.
The quejío stars this year in the poster of the 62nd edition from the vision of the plastic artist Lidó Rico. In it, he captured “the duende moment in which the cantaor gives what he has in the depths of his soul”, making use of a photoluminescence technique, immersing himself in first person in the purest flamenco, playing with a loop of light on and off so that his silhouette would be trapped in the image. The artist opted for contemporary art to create a perfect synergy with cante jondo, achieving “a poster that can almost be heard”.
As a novelty, this year anyone who attends the Festival will be able to become the protagonist of the work, since a space will be set up with a photoluminescent surface like the one used by the creator with a loop of light that will allow them to take a picture and take a memory of his passage through the Cante de las Minas. The sale of tickets for the LXII International Festival of Cante de las Minas is now open through the Correos website (entradas.correos.es), as well as in the network of post offices for physical purchase.
#Estrella #Morente #Carmen #Linares #Los #Vivancos #LXII #International #Festival #Cante #las #Minas