LA VIDA DE PABLO
o la inocencia ofendida

In his paintings, Goya depicts Spain during the 18th century, the place and time in which flamenco was fully originating.
Flamenco sings the praises of man’s deepest emotions, going from the tragedy of death over lost loves to the most joyful passion and happines.
Goya’s palette is exactly as deep, with paintings of man’s darkest corners up to the most endearing pictures of mother’s love and so on.
It is this deeply tragic nature and Goya’s humane message which create a bond between his work and flamenco.
During these performances, we follow little Pablo’s fictional course of life. The little boy tries to find his place and his way in Goya’s chaotic and sometimes cruel Spain.
Five flamenco artists (Erminia Fernández Córdoba, Federico Ordoñez, Michel Gillaein, Marta Flendrig, Sigrid Vandenbogaerde) interpret Pablo’s life by the help of some of Goya’s paintings.The text of the flamenco songs and the musical compositions have been especially selected and created for this performance. They follow Pablo from his birth right up to his death.
Thanks to the tight connection between the painting and flamenco, a unique expressiveness is created in which Pablo”s individual story often exceeds itself up to a universal story concerning lost innocence.

Artists :
Erminia Fernández Córdoba (zang)
Federico Ordoñez (dans)
Michel Gillain (gitaar)
Marta Flendrig (percussie)
Sigrid Vandenbogaerde (cello)

Technique :
Piet Vermonden

Duration :
deel I  45’
deel II  35’

Erminia Fernández Córdoba was born in La Plata, Argentina in 1980. In the first year of her life, her family moved to Spain, where she grew up. In 1998 she went to Holland to study music.

Next to flamenco, she also sings jazz and South-American music, which she both studies at the Alkmaar and Rotterdam conservatory.

In the last few years, Erminia has been profiling herself more and more as a flamenco singer and she has become a much requested artist both home and abroad.

Federico Ordoñez

Federico Ordoñez took up flamenco dancing as a child. After several courses in Spain, he was already profiled as a youngster in the Compañia Antonio Martinez, for which he acted as a soloist in several spectacles (among others at the Brussels PSK).

Over the last few years, he has become one of the most requested flamenco artists in Belgium and Holland and he also has been regularly performing in VRT programmes.

Michel Gillain has given several solo-recitals in Belgium (recordings by Radio 3 and Klara), Holland, France and Japan. In 1998, Michel Gillain among others gave a solo recital in the Belgian embassy in Tokyo. Several tours through Japan followed in 1999 and 2001, including a very succesful solo recital at the 8th Osaka Film Festival. In 1999 he coordinated among others the ‘Misa Flamenca’ project for the Las Lanzas group from Breda, Holland. In 2002, a tour through Flanders was taken up with this Misa, together with the VRT choir. In addition, live projects such as “Nicholaes Cleynaerts, Pastor de Amor” (2000) and “Juana la Loca” (2004) were created by him. Since recently he is also part of a musical duo together with Philippe Malfeyt (lute, theorbe and baroque guitar).

His first CD “Esperanza” has appeared in September 1996. His second CD “Nicolaes Cleynaerts, Pastor de Amor” appeared in 2000. His pedagogical video’s “Introduction to flamenco guitar” (2 parts) appeared in 2002.

In January 2005, Michel Gillain received a certificate of the Spanish cultural institution Circulo Hispanico Las Lanzas for his large contribution to Spanish music.

As a toddler already, Marta starts dancing with Esmeralda, after which flamenco turns from play to passion. As a young girl, she performs with guitar pleyer Mario Cortés, whose teacher Carmen Cortés will later teach her. From the age of 15 she leaves for Andalucia for ever longer periods. She there takes classes and attends flamenco feasts and festivals, where she gets to know the feeling that forms the essence of flamenco.

She continues the learning process in Madrid, with grand masters such as El Guïto, Cristobal Reyes and Manolete. She also performs in several of Madrid’s tablaos. The well-known Manolo Marín is her trainer in Sevilla.

At the moment, she is performing both at home and abroad with among others the group Chupendi, with which she has at several occasions appeared on Dutch, German and Spanish television. Being a qualified instructor, she teaches several classes and workshops to both starting and professional dancers.

Next to her work as a dancer, she also uses her natural feel for rhythm as a percussionist player.