Seville, (EFE).- The flamenco singer Carmen Linares has been awarded an ‘honorary doctorate’ by the University of Seville with a speech in which she stated that “flamenco entered the University in its own right, as an art that justifies itself by itself” and in which he has taken a tour of the relationship between flamenco and this university.
“The interest of our intellectuals in flamenco has led to it being studied not only in Spain but also in numerous universities abroad”, the cantaora pointed out in her speech, at the solemn act held in the University Auditorium, in which he has sung a poem by Manuel Machado and attended by Miguel Poveda and Arcángel, among other artists.
Carmen Linares has referred to Manuel Machado, who was a witness at the wedding of his in-laws, on several occasions because of his connections with flamenco singing and because “many of his lyrics have been circulating for many years in the classic repertoire of flamenco singers.” , from Antonio Mairena to Enrique Morente”.
The cantaora has listed the main cantaores that Seville has produced because, she has assured, “due to its quality, variety and mastery, the cante of Seville has served as an enormous inspiration for numerous later generations of artists who have followed the line of those maestros, conserving and renewing their music and their emotions”.
The first university of 1963
Linares recalled that in 1963 the first flamenco university week was held at the University of Seville with the extraordinary presence among the authorities of Pastora Pavón ‘La Niña de los Peines’ together with her husband, the singer Pepe Pinto, a fact that Antonio Mairena, who was present, recalled as follows:
“The event was unprecedented. I felt that the dreams of my artistic life were fulfilled there in terms of the cultural recognition of cante and cantaor and, moreover, of the great cantaora Pastora Pavón. Cante had entered the university”.
He has also recalled that nine years later, in 1972, Pepe Marchena gave a lecture illustrated with his cante at this same university, for which he has ensured that “if there is a place that strives to maintain the integrity of flamenco through its traditional values and their reasonable evolution is the university”.
Carmen Linares has described flamenco as “a universal Andalusian art” and has assured that for flamenco artists “it is very important to have an institution like the university to enhance flamenco art through university education because flamenco is one of the best music in the world” and “an art with capital letters”.
The cantaora has concluded with an appeal for the institutions to protect “this art that is universal” and affirming: “I have given my life for flamenco but flamenco has returned it to me in spades”.
Rescue of the cante of teachers
The presentation of Carmen Linares was given by Cristina Cruces, professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Seville, who highlighted the album, which recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, “Antología (La mujer en el cante)” which Carmen Linares herself, in a meeting this morning with journalists, has pointed out as the most important of her own.
That record was a rescue of the cante of the teachers, La Mejorana, Rosa ‘La Papera’, Rosario ‘la del Colorao’, Tía Marina Habichuela, La Conejilla, María Limón, La Repompa, La Serneta, La Juanaca, La Roezna, Jilica de Marchena and so many other cantaoras who, according to Professor Cruces, “were great in an art like flamenco that, with inordinate zeal, took to heeling the pulse of the professionals who were and the heartbeat of so many who couldn’t manage to do it” . EFE
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