Following a critically acclaimed sell out season at London’s Sadlers Wells Theatre, the Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company returns to the Australian stage with their new production Flamenco sin Fronteras. Exploring exciting musical territory, Peña’s new production reveals amazing musical links between Latin, Africa and Spain.
Featuring three Flamenco dancers and eight virtuoso musicians and singers, Peña has taken a searching look at how the music and dance styles that emerged through the migration of Spanish performers to Latin America in the early 1900s have had a significant impact on flamenco today.
Packed with all the intensity, depth and raw energy that have become this maestro's trademark, this show is sure to delight die-hard flamenco fans and newcomers alike.
Paco Peña
Born in the Andalucian city of Córdoba, Paco Peña began learning guitar from his brother at the age of six and made his first professional appearance at the age of 12. In the late 1960s he left Spain for London, where his recitals of flamenco music captured the public imagination.
Venues for his solo performances have included the intimate Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and the monumental Royal Albert Hall in London, New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has shared the stage with fellow-guitarists, singers and instrumental groups, bridging diverse musical genres, including classical, jazz, blues, country and Latin American.
In 1981 he founded the Centro Flamenco Paco Peña in Cordoba, later becoming Artistic Director of the Córdoba International Guitar Festival. Plans are underway for a new educational initiative in Peña’s hometown, complementing his work as the world’s first Professor of Flamenco Guitar, a role established in 1985 at Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands.
Since 1970 Paco Peña has performed regularly with his own hand-picked company of dancers, guitarists and singers in a succession of groundbreaking shows. The Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company has taken flamenco into the realm of music-theatre with regular seasons in London (Royal Festival Hall, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Barbican) and festival appearances in Edinburgh, Adelaide, Amsterdam, Athens, Israel, Istanbul, Singapore and Hong Kong.
1999 brought the most ambitious production yet: Musa Gitana. Peña based the piece on the life and work of another artist from Córdoba, the painter Julio Romero de Torres. Another landmark was Misa Flamenca, a 1991 setting of the Mass that juxtaposed Peña’s company with a classical choir. Its premiere at London’s Royal Festival Hall, given with the Choir of the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, was followed by a staging at the 1992 EXPO in Seville.
Paco Peña’s latest work, Requiem for the Earth, which again marrying flamenco with forms of classical music, came about following his participation in various music festivals, over many years, performing Misa Flamenca. The Salisbury Festival, finally convinced him to write a Requiem in 2004, true to the orthodox tradition of such works, but giving it a different treatment at the same time; thus, composing a REQUIEM FOR THE EARTH, building its context with this in mind, and therefore giving this work a social commentary.
Paco Peña is based in London, but still spends a significant part of the year in his native Andalucía. In 1997 he was proud to be named Oficial de la Cruz de la Orden del Merito Civil, an honour bestowed by King Juan Carlos of Spain.
“Dance and music-making this good are rare….his London fans have been cheering the great Andalucian guitarist Paco Peña for decades. At its world premiere, his latest work, Flamenco sin Fronteras, bore all the hallmarks of his previous hits. Peña has an alchemist’s gift when it comes to mixing the strands of dance, song and soul that throb through flamenco’s passionate emotions. Peña, now in his mid-sixties, has long been in the enviable position of surrounding himself with nothing but the best. That’s exactly what he’s done for Flamenco sin Fronteras. Every one of the dancers, singers and musicians is a standout.”
The Times, London
"Fiery fusion is kindled by the flame of genuis"
Daily Express, London
"5 stars. The joy of dance was never brighter"
The Sunday Express
"A genuine virtuoso [Paco Peña] capable of dazzling an audience with technical abilities beyond the frets of mortal man"
New York Times