It had been a long time since I had last attended a recital of\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0at\u00a0Pe\u00f1a Flamenca Paco Mazaco<\/i>, in Coria del R\u00edo (Seville province), and that\u2019s what I did last Sunday. The recital was by Manuel C\u00e1stulo, from Mairena del Alcor, who is among the best ones in our days when it comes to\u00a0cante jondo<\/i>. Without a doubt, he is the foremost representative of Mairena\u2019s\u00a0cante<\/i>. I mean the town of Mairena, not just Antonio Mairena or what we know as the House of Mairena.<\/p>\n
C\u00e1stulo is a faithful disciple of Antonio and his school, which he typifies without any kind of complex. I say this because lately there has been problems with the matter of complexes. One thing is imitating a\u00a0cantaor<\/i>, another is being a faithful exponent of a master or his school. This\u00a0cantaor<\/i>\u00a0from Mairena sings the way that people have been singing in Mairena, a very\u00a0flamenco<\/i>\u00a0town in the province of Seville, even before Antonio Mairena became famous, because this town in the Alcores district has always had a bunch of great aficionados, fields laborers or traders who sang in taverns and family parties just because they liked to.<\/p>\n
There are still a lot of people who sing just because they like singing and are not professional\u00a0cantaores<\/i>, particularly singers of\u00a0saetas<\/i>. Mairena is a town of\u00a0saetas<\/i>,\u00a0ton\u00e1s<\/i>,\u00a0soleares<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0seguiriyas<\/i>.\u00a0Cantaores<\/i>\u00a0here don\u2019t usually sing\u00a0guajiras<\/i>,\u00a0tarantas<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0grana\u00ednas<\/i>, even as they\u2019re able to sing any\u00a0palo<\/i>, like Antonio Mairena himself did, even as he preferred other\u00a0palos<\/i>. Mairena was able to get into a party and sing whatever was necessary.<\/p>\n
There is a well-known story in this town about one day when Antonio was in a party with a group of friends, aficionados and other local\u00a0cantaores<\/i>, and someone complained that he never sang\u00a0fandangos<\/i>. Mairena got upset and sang\u00a0fandangos<\/i>\u00a0for one hour without repeating one single verse. Besides being a great\u00a0cantaor<\/i>, Antonio was a great aficionado, so he knew pretty much everything.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere in the\u00a0pe\u00f1a<\/i>\u00a0of Coria del R\u00edo was wonderful. This is one of the best\u00a0pe\u00f1as<\/i>\u00a0in Andalusia, a very\u00a0flamenco<\/i>\u00a0corner with very competent aficionados. Not many of them, but they\u2019re good. The\u00a0pe\u00f1a<\/i>\u00a0itself is not big, but it\u2019s cozy and decorated with many photos and posters in its walls. The bar is away from the stage, in a different room, so it doesn\u2019t disturb the artists at all. They often have good soups and marinated mullet, one of the gastronomic specialties of this land. In all, it\u2019s a perfect\u00a0pe\u00f1a<\/i>\u00a0to sing, play the guitar and listen to flamenco with respect.<\/p>\n
C\u00e1stulo was at ease and he sang as he usually does: committed and with impressive sobriety. He was accompanied by a seasoned guitarist, Jos\u00e9 de la Pura, from Chiclana (C\u00e1diz province). There are few guitarists like him able to accompany the\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0of an artist like this\u00a0cantaor<\/i>\u00a0from Mairena, without any superfluous embellishment. His toque is so\u00a0flamenco<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0jondo<\/i>\u00a0that C\u00e1stulo was able to give a great recital, even as in his first\u00a0cante<\/i>, a\u00a0malague\u00f1a<\/i>, he seemed a bit off. Yet, as soon as he started his\u00a0tientos-tangos<\/i>\u00a0he improved in every way. He was superb in the\u00a0soleares<\/i>,\u00a0seguiriyas<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0alegr\u00edas<\/i>, and excellent in the\u00a0fandangos<\/i>.<\/p>\n
There are few\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0nowadays who are able to perform such variety of\u00a0cantes<\/i>\u00a0with such depth and wisdom. The public who filled the\u00a0pe\u00f1a<\/i>\u00a0acclaimed him with a thunderous standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are few\u00a0cantaores\u00a0nowadays who are able to perform such variety of\u00a0cantes\u00a0with such depth and wisdom. The public who filled the\u00a0pe\u00f1a\u00a0acclaimed him with a thunderous standing ovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,70],"tags":[252,253,251],"class_list":["post-5131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo","category-chronicles","tag-manuel-castulo-en","tag-pena-paco-mazaco-en","tag-coria"],"yoast_head":"\n