Artists-Jesús Corbacho

以專業度及行銷藝術節的活動來講，這次香港所舉辦的地中海藝術節算是相當成功的一例。從場場爆滿的觀眾數來看，香港這個國際城市在推動藝文活動的不遺餘力是有目共睹，相對於台灣本地的藝文推廣，相信我們仍有很大的進步空間
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在這場Gala Flamenca的節目中少見大明星的組合，讓人有”怎麼看都看不夠”的驚豔，觀眾中更是有人一連看三場。

整個節目中從頭到尾獨撐大局的年輕歌手Jesús Corbacho讓人印象深刻，看似年輕的面貌卻有著另人動容的嗓音，這位年輕的歌唱家年紀雖輕，卻已經有相當豐富的演出經驗，更是許多當紅舞者指定合作的對象。這次在藝術節中有幸與他面對面接觸，並獲得首肯於本網站中刊登其相關資訊，以下為他個人的簡介及影片檔

Jesús Corbacho Vázquez nace en Huelva en 1986. Su afición al flamenco le viene desde muy temprana edad, ya que con tan solo dos años y medio entonaba sus primeros fandangos.

A la edad de once años se alzó con el Primer Premio Nacional de Fandangos del Certamen "Paco Toronjo" en Alosno, en la Categoría Infantil, repitiendo dicho galardón cuatro años más tarde en la Categoría de Adultos.

Actualmente, Corbacho formaliza sus estudios de cante flamenco en la Fundación Christina Heeren de Sevilla, donde también trabaja de profesor auxiliar para las clases de Rafael Campallo, Milagros Mengíbar y Carmen Ledesma, y donde cuenta con profesores de la talla de Paco Taranto, Esperanza Fernández y José de la Tomasa.

Jesús, a parte de prodigarse como cantaor de alante, también lo hace con el cante para el baile, habiendo trabajado con artistas de la talla de Milagros Mengíbar, Belén Maya o Alicia Márquez, entre otras.
Ha compartido escenario en diversas ocasiones con artistas como Chano Lobato, Juanito Villar, Arcángel, "El Extremeño", Estrella Morente, "El Guadiana", Maite Martín, Montse Cortés…
Respecto a lo que ha discografía se refiere, grabó con el grupo Niños de Huelva, (Herencia y Esta noche es Navidad) en 1998, además de haber colaborado en el disco Fandango Joven y la Historia Antológica del Fandango de Huelva de A. González "El Raya".
A parte de haber recorrido toda la geografía andaluza, y los más importantes puntos de España, ha realizado giras por países como Austria, Italia, México, Suecia, Noruega, Taiwán, Dinamarca, Francia, Bélgica...

En 2005 obtuvo diversos premios como:
Premio de Saeta Joven en Jerez de la Ftra. (Cádiz), Premio al Mejor Cantaor Joven del Concurso de Cante Flamenco de Ojén (Málaga) y Premio al Mejor Cantaor Joven del "Memorial Juan Casillas" de Vva. Algaidas (Málaga).

En el presente año ha vuelto a conseguir estos dos últimos premios, además de haberse alzado con el 2º Premio del Concurso de Cante Grande "Torre del Cante" de Alhaurín de la Torre y el 4º Premio del Concurso Flamenco Activo de Úbeda.

En el XLVI Festival Internacional de Cante de las Minas de La Unión, participó en el pregón de inauguración que llevo a cabo la bailaora Milagros Mengíbar, cosechando un rotundo éxito y en la actualidad forma parte de los espectáculos "Bulos y Tanguerías" de Santiago Barber y Raúl Cantizano, y "Dibujos", de Belén Maya y José Luís Rodríguez, además de trabajar en el prestigioso tablao sevillano "La Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus".

Spain Frets Over Future of Flamenco

By MAR ROMAN,Associated Press Writer AP - Sunday, October 28

MADRID, Spain - Master guitar-maker Arcangel Fernandez has stopped taking orders. He's been at it for 50 years, fashioning delicate wooden shells into lacquered beauties, and at age 75 he has enough work for the rest of his life.

However, the aficionados buying his coveted $13,000 instruments are not local musicians but Japanese collectors _ an alarming sign that the art form considered so intrinsically Spanish is declining in its birthplace and is now more popular among foreigners.
A decade ago, Madrid boasted 20 flamenco taverns featuring this unique kind of entertainment _ the furious, rhythmic tapping of a dancer's heels, the thundering chords of a classical guitar, a singer's soulful lament, all that contagious hand-clapping. Now only four or five remain, all packed with tourists and too expensive for the average Spaniard.
At the city's most hallowed flamenco school, half the students are from abroad.
"These days flamenco is more valued among foreigners," Fernandez said in his guitar shop, part woodworking sanctuary, part meeting place for guitar buffs.
Silvia Calado, a critic for the Web site http://www.flamenco-world.com said flamenco is not quite in a state of crisis. But while it has built up great prestige abroad, here in Spain it is low on creativity and has failed to reach out to new audiences.
"Flamenco is distancing itself from young people and they are the ones who can keep it alive," Calado said.
Flamenco classes would have lots of empty places were it not for foreign students, and half of the hits on her Web page come from abroad, Calado said. The Grammy awards give out a prize for flamenco music and the Spanish media barely bother to cover the awards, telecast from Los Angeles.
"It is disgraceful," Calado said.
Fifteen years ago, Fernandez, who makes an average of eight guitars a year, decided to work exclusively for foreigners. Now, he doesn't even raise the metal shutters of his shop when he is inside toiling away.
"Foreigners pay you better and they give you fewer problems than Spaniards," Fernandez said. "Customers come to pick up the guitar and you never see them again. They are always happy with the product. For them, flamenco is a very serious thing."
At the famed Amor de Dios School, teacher Inmaculada Ortega said flamenco has serious box-office problems and dance companies receive little support from a government more interested in promoting other Spanish art forms, such as painting or contemporary dance.
Ortega, 36, said she has to go as far as South Africa or the United States _ some times for months _ to make decent money, while in Spain she must give classes and sew flamenco costumes to make ends meet.
"Before, a flamenco dancer was held in high social esteem, had glamour. Now a dancer goes unnoticed," she said. "In Spain, you can only barely get by on flamenco."
Despite that gloomy assessment, some of the foreigners at the school have given up everything to come here and chase their dream.
Emily Liedel, 23, quit her job as a legal assistant in the United States a year ago to come to Madrid and study flamenco full time. She learned it in her native Portland, Ore., but wanted to polish and perfect her steps.
"I want to be a flamenco teacher, good enough to be a flamenco dancer," Liedel said. "It fascinates me, but it's very difficult, especially for a foreigner like me because we're not familiar with the music," said Liedel, who teaches English and belly dancing to pay for her flamenco.
The precise origins and evolution of flamenco are unclear. It is traced to the Gypsies of Spain, but was also influenced by folk songs and dances from the southern Andalusia region. There are also Moorish influences.
After the Civil War of 1936-39, the right-wing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco embraced flamenco as a quintessentially Spanish genre that he saw as a force for unity in a country with disparate regions proud of their distinct languages and cultures.
Flamenco was transported from the smoky taverns where it was traditionally performed to dominate movie screens and the stages of theaters. A cliche was born _ the Spain of tambourines and castanets.
After Franco died in 1975 and democracy was restored, Spanish youths looked to foreign music as an expression of rebellion and independence, to the detriment of flamenco.
Many flamenco professionals say it is not universally popular in Spain and that many Spaniards are embarrassed by foreigners' assumptions that flamenco is Spain's national music.
Ortega said she believes many Spaniards cannot accept flamenco as a serious art form because of its gypsy roots.
"Foreigners like flamenco more because they don't have any social prejudices. Spaniards have learned that flamenco is an art of a racial minority," said Ortega, who has been dancing since she was 8.
"For Spaniards, it's a hobby but foreigners idolize it. They make flamenco their lives," she said.

Hong Kong-Gala Flamenca

GALA FLAMENCA”－－－这场音乐会使当今弗拉门戈舞台上最杰出的两位歌喉珠联璧合，即卡门•丽娜莱丝（Carmen Linares）和米格尔•波韦达（Miguel Poveda），并由吉他大师胡安•卡洛斯•罗梅洛（Juan Carlos Romero）激情伴奏，西班牙最火红的舞蹈明星Rocio Molina(洛西欧‧莫琳纳)激情献舞。

无论是一粒音符，一个吐字，都能直指人类的灵魂深处，西班牙歌唱女皇卡门．利纳雷斯就有这种能耐，不愧是佛兰明高的音乐大使。自1970年发行第一张专辑后，她的歌声一直传述着佛兰明高独有的风采，细致地表现人生的喜乐哀愁，充满收放自如的爆发力量。


东地中海音乐源远流长，深受古希腊、拜占庭帝国、波斯、阿拉伯及鄂图曼等辉煌文明影响，充满鲜活多元色彩。专长研究及表演拜占庭世俗音乐的希腊安荷达斯乐团，连同伊朗、土耳其、黎巴嫩、约旦多位独当一面的音乐家，演出承传地中海古乐的传统及现代作品，为观众展现该地域音乐的无限边界。
超过30年演唱经验，让卡门．利纳雷斯能纵横从传统到现代的不同曲式，在国际舞台上占有重要席位，被《纽约时报》称誉为「激情澎湃、出类拔萃」。这次她更难得伙同近年火速上位的年轻歌唱家米格尔．波维达同台演出。米格尔20岁时即羸得最重要的佛兰明高大赛，自此各地艺术节争相邀请，去年出席纽约和伦敦的佛兰明高艺术节时，大获好评。

当今乐坛中两把最迷人的声音，加上火热结他手尊．卡路．罗米洛，及被誉为2004年美国佛兰明高艺术节最佳新人得主洛齐奥．莫利纳的曼妙舞姿，为观众缔造佛兰明高最令人倾倒的一夜。
音乐会将汇聚许多难得一听的乐曲，包括由利玛•忆萨斯*以耶稣基督时代的语言 利亚 - 亚拉姆语演唱古老诗歌《神的母亲》；另一首拜占庭古乐《来自东方的夜莺》的手稿，则来自多个世纪前阿索斯山的修道院图书馆珍藏，价值连城。而来自土耳其及伊朗的两名敲击高手，米斯里．亚密特和斯亚．塔巴斯安同台演出，仿如两大文明在当世的对话。

安荷达斯乐团致力推动承传多个世纪的地中海共同音乐遗产，经常巡回于欧洲、北美、北非和中东等地的艺术节作交流演出。2003年更获欧洲联盟委约策划「地中海缪思」计划，以音乐会、出版及讲座于世界各地推广地中海音乐。
文章摘自：行走的耳朵-耶胡达

Taiwan-從心再出發

台灣的Flamenco圈在這二年有了很大的變化，不僅普遍程度提昇，專業程度也一年一年往上發展。除了國內人士長期的努力之外，另一股來自於西班牙歸國學人所挹注的力量也漸漸開始發酵。

從心再出發-本月份最受人矚目的活動之一，.這場由甫自西班牙歸台的朋友們所呈現的演出，雖沒有太多的宣傳活動，在圈內早已傳遍，另人期待的程度，據說票房早在消息一傳出即已爆滿。，

演出者除了本地舞者、吉他手，並邀請來自日本的歌手，節目呈現的方式將是台灣現今所見少數傳統、完整的演出之一。