The words that appear here in the headline, and which I couldn\u2019t fully understand when I first heard them, are a direct quote from one of the most admired flamenco singers in the history of this art-form. Fifty years after they were spoken, when we\u2019re remembering the lady from Utrera on the centennial of her birth in 1923, it seems perhaps that it\u2019s the most accurate self-description of Fernanda Jim\u00e9nez Pe\u00f1a. Early one morning during the Utrera fair, after a long night of fiesta, both of us looking like something the cat dragged in, Fernanda spoke those words that now appear to be the key to her barely disguised sadness, and the permanent resignation that filtered through her singing, touching our flamenco fibers.<\/p>\n
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Ay Fernanda\u2026 A sociable generous lady with a wall-to-wall smile, adored by flamenco fans, yet she didn\u2019t feel loved on a personal level. This is the message I hear in her voice and way of singing that plays over and over in my head por<\/em> sole\u00e1: Me tienes tan sujeta (You have me so controlled)\u2026 Por el hablar de la gente (The people\u2019s gossip)\u2026 Cualquier di\u00edta menos pensao (The day you least expect it)\u2026 Mi mal no tiene cura (My sickness has no cure)\u2026 Eso que la gente habla (What everyone is saying)\u2026 <\/em>Fernanda holds the permanent deed to these verses, and many others, with her painful voice, without histrionics or fake gestures. It\u2019s the opposite end of the pole from over-the-top shouting of other singers who probably never heard Manolo Caracol\u2019s famous words: \u201cflamenco singing isn\u2019t for the deaf\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s possible her family and professional life kept her from having a serious relationship. Or perhaps her devotion, always reciprocated, to her inseparable sister Bernarda, left little room for a conventional romance. She wasn\u2019t pretty, no\u2026nor was she ugly. Her features could be described as exotic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The flamenco singing of Utrera is tinged with a mysterious kind of bittersweet pain. Absent is the rage and intensity that inspires the output of other zones, and an ambience of darkness filters through even the \u201calegr\u00edas\u201d (happiness) of Pinini, Fernanda\u2019s famous grandfather. The cante of sole\u00e1 seems rooted in Utrera, leaving much of the body of siguiriyas to singers of C\u00e1diz and Jerez. Buler\u00edas are geographically distributed as well, boisterous in C\u00e1diz\/Jerez, slow and expressive in Utrera, despite being essentially a festive form. When Fernanda sang sole\u00e1, her face was a knot of pain, each syllable a nearly lost battle. A spiritually rich stew, so personal that attributions of specific styles seem irrelevant, and everything is \u201csole\u00e1 de Fernanda\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unlike many people believe, she was not \u201cdiscovered\u201d in the legendary film of 1952, Duende y Misterio del flamenco. <\/em>Her voice is heard, but we only see her sister Bernarda. It would be another few years until records of dance shows would become popular, and both sisters would record with Manuela Vargas leading to their unmistakable voices being heard at the most important festivals and Madrid tablaos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With just 6 or 7 styles of sole\u00e1, Fernanda de Utrera earned a place of honor at the altar of flamenco, shattering our souls with the dark honey of her insufficient voice, her deep song and her unique artistic personality, always navigating between painful sweetness and her need to be loved like any other individual.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What a great privilege to have known you, Fernanda.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fernanda de Utrera earned a place of honor at the altar of flamenco, shattering our souls with the dark honey of her insufficient voice, her deep song and her unique artistic personality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":38996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,4351],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-38999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estela-flamenca","category-news-opinion","tag-flamenco"],"yoast_head":"\nTop image: Fernanda de Utrera, 1966 – Photo: Maria Silver Chris Carnes<\/h6>\n