El Pele & Manuela Carrasco, special guest El Choro
Opening gala – X Flamenco Biënnale Nederland
Exceptional flamenco alliance between two flamenco icons
‘A flamenco beast in the wild’, ‘a voice warm as old copper’, the superlatives in the Spanish press supersede each other when it comes to describing the vocal art of Manuel Moreno Maya ‘El Pele’ (1954). El Pele is the classic gitano voice, intuitive and unpolished, sometimes so personal that it hurts. With unprecedented ease and mastery and with incomparable timing, the singer from Córdoba moves through all the palos (styles) of flamenco, both the serious and joyful songs. His voice rises to lonely heights and delves into unfathomable depths.
After ten years, El Pele returns to the Flamenco Biennale and with none other than Manuela Carrasco, the ‘Goddess of Flamenco Dance’. For the first time, both living legends share the stage with a joint performance, with special guest dancer Antonio Molina ‘El Choro’. An exceptional alliance forged especially for and by the anniversary festival.
Manuela Carrasco stands for a flamenco close to its roots, where the simplest of movements can express the maximum. The career of Manuela Carrasco (1958, Triana, Seville) spans fifty years and to this day her primal power can be felt in the highest rows of the theatre. With Carmen Amaya, Rafael el Negro and Farruco (father of Farruquito) as her great inspirations, she stands for a raw flamenco, unadulterated, without embellishments. Flamenco as a ritual, and religion.
With his raw lamento, El Pele once overwhelmed Prince and David Bowie, who invited him for a guest appearance in his show. In the 80s, his voice conquered the world with guitarist Vicente Amigo with whom he recorded the album ‘Canto’. His voice that breaks out, rips apart, is timeless. It is the voice full of grit that evokes the words of poet Federico García Lorca: ‘The Cante Jondo is a chant without landscape, and therefore introspective, and terrible, in the midst of darkness, she fires her golden arrows that fix themselves in our hearts.’
‘A dancer with a temperament most rare,’ a Spanish journalist characterised Manuela Carrasco. Internationally, she gained fame through Carlos Saura's film Flamenco (1995) and ‘her’ monumental Soleá with singer José Mercé. Her alliances with late singers Chocolate, Fernanda de Utrera and Fosforito are historical legacies. The Flamenco Biennale adds a royal alliance in 2025 on the opening night of its 10th edition at Royal Theatre Carré.
