“La Musica Del Flamenco”, the final performance in the 26th annual Vancouver International Flamenco Festival took place on Sunday, the 18th of September, at the Centro Flamenco studio. The event was hosted by guitarist Victor Kolstee, featuring cantaor Jose “Cachito” Diaz and guitarist Santiago Enciso, from Mexico.
The Flamenco Festival takes place each year in Vancouver, a city known as one of the most international and diverse cities in the world. The myriad of cultures that exist in this city serve as a great source of entertainment. The Flamenco Festival is one such example. The festival brought together a number of talented and experienced artists from all parts of the world to share various aspects of their culture through traditional music and dance. The trio of art, music and culture in the Flamenco Festival provides us with an opportunity to embrace, recognise and applaud traditions and practices that are different from our own. The display of the hard work and effort initiated by the Flamenco team, which was directed by Rosario Ancer and Victor Kolstee, the affordable ticket prices, and the free events and workshops offered all contributed to an amazing event.
The audience at “La Musica Del Flamenco” consisted of a very small crowd, which only made each person enjoy the musical performances more. The environment was very relaxed and everyone seemed to be enjoying the impressive and spectacular musical melodies and the awe-inspiring rhythms of the guitar. It was an extremely comfortable atmosphere in which both the performers and the audience could interact with each other. In certain instances, the audience was asked to sing along with the performer, and towards the end of the show, the audience was able to personally go up to the singers and guitarists and congratulate them on their production.
The classical music during the show also gave the audience a greater insight into the importance and beauty of language. A majority of the music sung and played during the September 18th production was “jondo”, which is one of the two main styles of Flamenco. “Jondo” is earnest and deep meaning and conveys “the cry of the oppressed people”. In addition, there were also certain songs sung by Jose Diaz that contained elements of the second main style of Flamenco, known as “chico”, which is joyous, upbeat and rather humorous.
The themes covered by Flamenco vary from politics, to love, to equality and humour. However, it is quite easy to understand just by listening to the music’s heart-rending tone that the music mainly represents the hardships the Romani people (the originators of Flamenco) had to endure throughout their extremely difficult journey. Although the music conveyed a deeply sad and difficult topic, the music was still very appealing and made us appreciate the beauty of both the traditional and modern aspects of Flamenco.
Overall, our night at the Flamenco Festival turned out to be an intimate evening of passionate and sensuous flamenco works featuring several respected artists of the Mercedes Amaya Company. The festival as a whole was a wonderful way for the residents of Vancouver to learn about Flamenco and its importance. Flamenco is an important piece of history and it is wonderful that flamenco works continue to be performed throughout the world.