-Grandpa, did you read the newspapers on Wednesday? Someone wrote that it was Juan Breva who took flamenco out of the fringes into the mainstream. I guess you\u2019ll have something to say about this, right? It\u2019s insanity, people just say whatever comes to their minds.<\/b><\/p>\n
-Indeed, it\u2019s ridiculous, Manolito. Odd stuff. Now, there\u2019s a new Gypsy messiah proclaiming that Gypsies are born knowing flamenco, but non-Gypsies must learn it for years. So, Paco de Luc\u00eda, for example, was the best, a genius, because he \u201clearned\u201d, but Camar\u00f3n would have been born already having a doctorate in\u00a0duendes<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0comp\u00e1s<\/i>. Remind me to propose a conference to sort out this enigma.<\/p>\n
-And what does this have to do with Juan Breva, granpa? You digress like a crazy person.<\/b><\/p>\n
-Nothing, it just drives me nuts. Antonio Ortega Escalona, Breva\u2019s real name, was born in V\u00e9lez- M\u00e1laga in 1844, if my memory doesn\u2019t fail. When he started singing in theaters, other well-established\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0had done it already, such as Silverio and Paco el Gandul, two ground-breaking artists from Seville. It\u2019s true that Breva was a great flamenco star, one of the most important of the 19th century, and he caused quite a stir when he went to Madrid, where he performed in theaters twice daily because he would draw bigger crowds than the Italian tenors of those days. That is, Breva revolutionized Andalusian\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0as of 1880, approximately. He was the favorite\u00a0cantaor<\/i>\u00a0of king Alfonso XII, who would squeeze out of his official residence to watch him perform or would invite him to his palace. That much is true, of course. But claiming that he was who took flamenco out of the fringes into the mainstream, not really. It\u2019s like when people say that it was Mairena or Marchena who took\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0out of the taverns. That\u2019s bullshit (pardon my French).<\/p>\n
-Yet, it makes sense for M\u00e1laga to honor its most important\u00a0cantaor<\/i>, right?<\/b><\/p>\n
-For sure, and it should do the same with Canario de \u00c1lroa, who in 1882 already performed with Breva in Madrid\u2019s theaters and cafes, singing even better than him, although Canario was ten years younger. At the time, he was known as Canario Malague\u00f1o, because although he was born in \u00c1lora, he grew up in the El Palo district of M\u00e1laga. His death in 1885 cut short a very promising career. He was ahead of his time, revolutionizing the\u00a0malague\u00f1a<\/i>\u00a0and rivalling Breva. Yet, M\u00e1laga barely remembers him.<\/p>\n
-What do you know about Canario\u2019s death?<\/b><\/p>\n
-He was killed by Lorenzo Colomer Ricard, from Gerona, the father of Rubia de M\u00e1laga. Canario used to perform at El Burrero and in summer he was scheduled to perform for a month at Never\u00eda del Chino, which was located next to the bridge in Triana, close to where the monument to Antonio Mairena now stands. Rubia\u2019s father had threatened him several times and on the night of August 13 he waited for him outside the caf\u00e9, where they got into a fight and Canario was stabbed in the heart, dying instantly.<\/p>\n
-Wasn\u2019t La Rubia the lover of Canario?<\/b><\/p>\n
-Yes, although this wasn\u2019t the reason for this crime, but rather the rivalry between them. La Rubia would imitate \u00c1lora, and apparently she started to be more successful than Canario himself. So, Canario demanded that she was banned from wherever he performed. Tired of his daughter\u2019s sufferings and the humiliations of this\u00a0cantaor<\/i>, the father decided to send him to another world. He was put on trial and jailed, but was pardoned when the king Alfonso XIII was born in 1886. Quite a story, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
-In those days Juan Breva was already famous, right?<\/b><\/p>\n
-Very much so, one of the most renowned of all.<\/p>\n
-Grandpa, those stories make flamenco even more interesting. Thank you.<\/b><\/p>\n
-That\u2019s great, you\u2019re very welcome.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" -Grandpa, did you read the newspapers on Wednesday? Someone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo"],"yoast_head":"\n