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Innovative Paco Pena stays true to his roots By Darrell Jonsson For The Prague Post (September 23, 2004) "My commitment and my love is for things to be done with true commitment to the tradition and roots of the music," says flamenco master Paco Pena. Exactly how he has applied the form to fashion his Flamenco Requiem should make for a captivating concert experience. Prague favorite Pena is a musical prodigy, performing professionally by the age of 12. Music came naturally, Pena says, in a world where "you had to make your own entertainment." He explains, "I was a member of a family of nine children. I grew up in a building where 10 families lived. There was a lot of music. ... Any occasion was exploited by somebody bringing a guitar, somebody dancing and singing."
That Pena has been able to take what started as backyard entertainment to world-class concert venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall reflects both his determined artistry and the universal attraction of his traditional music. Flamenco resides musically exactly where it resides geographically -- in the southern Spanish province of Andalusia, bridging the Mediterranean with the Americas and Europe to Africa. The roots of flamenco also include contributions from Sephardic Jews, Arabic Moors and the music of the early Christians. After the 15th century, the influence of Roma (gypsies) is also said to have vitalized the form. More recently Cuban, Argentinian, jazz and rock influences have found their way into flamenco. Listening closely, you can hear the mix of ethnic, profane and sacred threads artfully interwoven to produce a music that can make your hair stand on end while also having the capacity to soothe. The music continues to be endlessly adaptable in the hands of a master such as Pena, who in 1991 penned a flamenco mass (Misa Flamenca). "Flamenco has always been an expression that nourishes itself from life and what is around you, so it is constantly changing," he says. In Pena's case, the exploration of flamenco's potential is both musical and poetic. For his latest work, he has taken the traditional requiem theme of human mortality and extended it to include what he calls "a requiem for the destruction that is happening to the earth ... and an optimistic message that we must do something, and that we will do something, to put things right." The note of hope shows up most prominently in his use of a children's choir. Pena has further expressed his concern and vision for a better world with Centro Flamenco Paco Pena, an organization he founded in his hometown of Cordoba, Spain, in 1981. The group's activities have encouraged the exchange of ideas between Mediterranean musical cultures, many with a heritage that Pena describes as "close to the Arabic world [and] at the receiving end of criticism and other negative events." Pena characterizes his group's musical activities as "the coming together and respecting of other cultures that deserve as much respect as ours or any other." Flamenco Requiem will also be a cross-cultural endeavor, with Pena accompanied by the Prague Singers (Prazsti pevci) and the Prague Philharmonic Children's Choir (Kuhnuv detsky sbor). Pena is also bringing along what are said to be the world's most riveting flamenco singers and dancers. His troupe will conclude the program with a choirless presentation of flamenco that can be concisely described as being straight out of Andalucia.
Darrell Jonsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com
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