Seville and Flamenco: the Sacred and Profane

And then there’s Sevilla (Spanish name) capital of Andalucia and ancient city of dreams. The historic  center of this colorful and fragrant city presents an ornate and romantic city filled with orange-trees everywhere, and gitanos/gypsies everywhere, some still living in the pre-historic caves in the hills around Seville… now adorned with curtains.

all photos by JS

square in the ancient part of Seville, Spain (JS)

It’s a city famous for its huge bullring (think Carmen), its gypsies (think Carmen), its flamenco (think Carmen), its intense oranges, and its huge over-the-top cathedral, the enormity and seeming haphazardness of which I cannot possibly convey to you by word or photo. In it, Columbus is buried in grandiose style, nothing in this cathedral being less than grandiose. It’s the largest cathedral in Spain and the third largest in the world (after St. Peter’s in the Vatican and St. Paul’s Anglican). Having shown you some of Burgos in a previous posting, you get some idea of how immense this even larger one is: really, really BIG!

By the way, if you haven't seen Bizet's Carmen, go get the opera film. It's one terrific musical-drama. It was the very first live opera I was taken to see (by my parents' friend and  piano teacher who despaired of my ever getting in tune)... and I still love the feistiness of that 'bad' girl heroine. (Bizet wasn't Spanish, so how could he have  known it's "torero", not "toreadore. Then again, I guess in lyrics it's fitting the beat that matters most). 

                                                                                                                                                                                   

This is a major altar in the Seville Cathedral... the figures are life-sized or larger, so get an idea of its scale!

Much of the Cathedral is done in the plateresque style (plateresco), which is typically Spanish, and exported to Spain’s colonies in Latin America. Literally translated (plata = silver), it means "in the manner of a silversmith".  It’s  characterized by profuse and lavish applications of delicate low-relief ornament in a variety of motifs, including Gothic, Renaissance, and Moorish design. Gilding and painted surfaces are included in the elaborate ornamentation.

Seeing this style so often in Spanish cathedrals made me wonder if the elaborate excesses often characterizing a Spanish girl’s Quinceañera could derive somehow from this long-standing Spanish tradition for ornamental display. 

Columbus's tomb in Cathedral of Seville (larger than lifesize figures)

I got shell-shocked after walking into the Cathedral. It was too big, too disorganized, too much of too much for me even to get a sense of the awesome or profound or beautiful. Quite the opposite of a rush, I felt a drain. Although I saw some impressive sights in it, as the photos document, I might be the only person in the world not enraptured by this Cathedral and I feel rather sorry about it.

 Here's a fragment of a painting in Seville showing Hell. Why does Hell inspire so much imaginative energy compared to Heaven? the other side of this painting could be a depiction of people waiting patiently for a bus.

My sense of wonder and glee returned after entering the Alcazar Real (Royal Palace), only a brief walk from the Cathedral. The Christian monarchs, Alfonso X and Pedro I employed Moorish craftsmen to build it in the 14th century. It's a wonderful example of  Mudéjar architecture (a mix of Moorish-Western).  


This royal palace, once inhabited by Isabella and Ferdinand, is still inhabited on their visits to Seville by the present Spanish king and queen (Carlos and Sophia). Aside from the royal quarters, much of the Alcazar is open to the public to see its ancient treasures in paintings and architecture (mostly Moorish, again, along with renaissance motifs ). Columbus had one of his latter audiences with Isabell and Ferdie in this place, perhaps both impressed and daunted by what he’d started to roll. 

Mosaic tiles in Alcazar Real, Seville (JS

Moving easily from the sacred to the profane, we went to see a Flamenco performance that same evening. I think I must have gotten hooked on Flamenco when I was an infant and  saw Julio Greco on the Ed Sullivan show. Such restraint in the midst of conveying strong emotion still gets to me. I don’t like bull-fighting; but I do think of the stamping movements in flamenco as embodying something of the bull’s pent-up rage. Similarly, the taught push-and-pull movements of pairs of dancers conveys an energy related to taming, while at the same time expressing, our animal/sexual nature. I’m sure there are dissertations out there on the "meaning” of Flamenco. But I just enjoy it: the music, the singing, the dance. It’s not happy, but there is so much energy and vitality in its pulse.

Today's Thought

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.

--Victor Hugo

I found an intriguing bit of information on Flamenco provided by the Frommers’ travel site, from which I’ll excerpt.  They mention connections between flamenco and the tragic fate of Spanish Jewry, suggesting that a Sephardic presence can be felt in flamenco music.  Flamenco took root after the  1492 expulsion and flourished underground. They state that many flamenco melodies are similar to Hebrew prayers, also noting similarities of the Hebrew “jalel” (to encourage) and the flamenco “jaleo” (the hand-clapping and shouts of encouragement accompanying the dance). Even the name flamenco (“Flanders” in Spanish) was how Conversos in Spain referred to the sacred music of their co-religionists who had emigrated to Flanders where freedom of worship was permitted. Who knows?

    

 I enjoyed staying in Sevilla. The hotel (Hotel Las Casas de la Juderia; photo at left) was a treat as were the small cafes and restaurants. People seem to enjoy living there. The unusual and highly rated hotel we stayed at was converted from a series of old houses  and retained some lovely old qualities along with excellent modern facilites and staff. 

Today's Painting

Cat & Hat, www.janetstrayerart.comhttp://www.janetstrayerart.com

 To COMMENT from the homepage: Click on Title of Post to get to its own page. Comment box appears below post. Subscribe for updates on art, travels, and adventures in creative life. You can also find me at my Facebook Page and Website for my art and news of upcoming shows/sales.