The first part of the program featured baritone Peter Castaldi singing Manuel de Falla’s El Paño Moruno and Polo; mezzo-soprano Darcy Dunn interpreting El Vito and La Maja y el Ruiseñor; and flamenco singers Aurora Reyes and Alfonso Cid performing Ojos Verdes and Falsa Moneda, respectively.

Versatile Spanish dancer from Barcelona, Elisabet Torras, displayed the rich gamut of the Spanish dance form recreating a Bolero from Tomás Bretón’s Cuatro Piezas Españolas within the early nineteenth-century style of Escuela Bolera playing minuscule castanets in concordance with the period. Contrasting in expressivity, Ms. Torras later presented a dramatized scene from the opera La Vida Breve, a choreographic variation which Gabriela Granados had created for herself and performed extensively through her career.

Joining Ms. Torras in Alegrías, Erika de Julia and José Moreno evoked the gaiety of the cantiña flamenco genres from Cádiz. Addressing the sorrow expressed in the poetic songs from the miners of the region of Almería, Mr. Moreno presented a pensive Taranto solo, which extended through a series of rhythmic footwork passages within the stances of the letra interpreted by the cante of Alfonso Cid and Aurora Reyes.

The program included two musical interludes contrasting classic Spanish music repertoire like Asturias by Isaac Albéniz, played at the grand piano by William Hobbs, with a lively Bulería Musical performed by the flamenco cuadro: guitarists Basillio Georges and Raphael Brunn, Guillermo Barrón as percussionist, and Alfonso Cid playing the flute. Both closing sections of the program were graced by the elegant baile of Gabriela Granados, joined by the company in El relicario and Bulerías de Cádiz respectively.

In the wake of flamenco’s tradition, the evening closed with pataitas por bulería, where dancers and musicians took turns displaying their signature moves with pellizco.
EYE ON THE ARTS, NY -- Gabriela Estrada EYE