Tablao

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Flamenco on the stage of the Corral de la “Morer” ía , a Madrid tablao

A tablao ( Andalusian from Spanish tablado, Latin tabulatum: podium, stage) or tablao flamenco is a place with a restaurant and a stage for regular flamenco performances.

history

The age of tablaos began in Spain in the mid-1950s, at a time when politics was looking for a means of joining and through the international ostracism and isolation of the country caused by the Franco dictatorship To break through campaigns to promote tourism ( "España es diferente" ) without having to give up internal politics, which are still repressive, through this liberalization of foreign policy.

As a result of this partial opening of the country, u. a. numerous American film productions on Spanish soil, the stars of which (above all Ava Gardner , who lived in Madrid for fifteen years) brought with them not only modern morals, but also high demands on the nightlife of a metropolis like Madrid . This climate encouraged the emergence of bars which, on the one hand, were in the tradition of the earlier café cantante , on the other hand , were able to meet the demands of a wealthy international public through their ambience , gastronomic and artistic quality, as well as a pricing policy aimed at exclusivity .

One of the first of these tablaos was the Zambra in Madrid. The owner, Fernán A. Casares, insisted on discipline among his guests and concentration on the performances. In addition to the dancer Rosa Durán , the undisputed figura principal of the establishment since it opened in 1954 , numerous of the best-known artists performed in the Zambra, including the dancers Paco Laberinto and Mario Maya , the dancer Manuela Vargas , the singers Pepe el Culata , Manolo Vargas , El Flecha de Cádiz and José Menese , as well as with the sisters Bernarda and Fernanda de Utrera two of the best Bulerías and Soleares interpreters of their generation. The Zambra also offered rooms for private events, in which wealthy guests often partied with the artists until the early hours of the morning.

Although many of the metropolitan tablaos in the 1970s lost parts of their audience to new jet set strongholds such as Marbella or the competition of the newly emerging discotheque and club culture and had to close as a result, tablaos are now not only found in Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries or the regions of the USA with a high proportion of Spanish-born residents, but also in many metropolises such as Amsterdam, Paris, London or Tokyo.

meaning

Regardless of a few critical voices, the new gastronomy concept of the tablaos was so successful, especially in the 1960s, that it quickly became a meeting point for national and international celebrities. In 1972, for example, the images of US President Ronald Reagan , who, during his visit to the Corral de la Morería , were animated by the then star of the bar, the dancer Lucero Tena, to dance through the press, thus manifesting the importance of tablaos for the social and cultural life of the Spanish metropolises.
Singers of the quality of Antonio Mairena or Terremoto de Jerez , the dancer Matilde Coral - they and many others found a place of work on these stages or opened their own tablaos in the following years, such as the singer and actor Manolo Caracol (Los Canasteros, Madrid 1963). The further development of flamenco as an art form also took place largely in the tablaos at that time. For numerous artists, such as the singers Camarón de la Isla and Enrique Morente , the dancers and choreographers Antonio Gades and Mario Maya , or the castanets virtuoso and dancer Lucero Tena, the tablaos were important stepping stones for their later careers as internationally celebrated stars of the flamenco scene.

As a result of an inflationary increase in tablaos in the core regions of mass tourism that began in the 1970s, especially on the Costa del Sol , and the associated change in the audience, not all tablaos achieved the quality of the zambra or comparable restaurants such as the Corral de la Morería (Madrid, opened 1960). Nevertheless, the tablaos still fulfill an important cultural and political function - on the one hand as a catalyst for different flamenco milieus, on the other hand as a basis for securing the livelihood of at least some of the artists who have regular income for the duration of their engagement, which makes up up to 95% of their income.
In addition to this economic aspect, today's tablaos are an alternative to the juergas (privately organized or spontaneous get-togethers of flamenco artists ) of a partially subcultural milieu, such as the elitist subsidy culture of festivals and theater performances, which are mainly based on the established ones, which are rarely accessible to outsiders, especially tourists , highly endowed international stars of the scene, and from which the financially disadvantaged parts of the local flamenco audience are in many cases excluded.

For example, what the writer and journalist Manuel Ríos Ruíz said back in 1988 applies to the tablaos existing in Spain : "The future of tablaos depends on tourism."

How strong the economic dependence of tablaos and the artists involved there is on tourism is shown by the case of the renowned and internationally known Casa Patas (Madrid), which after 32 successful years, due to the effects of the Corona crisis of 2020, was opened in May of had to file for bankruptcy in the same year. In its July 18, 2020 edition, the Spanish magazine ABC ran the headline: Tablaos Flamencos: un pilar cultural y turístico con el agua al cuello ( Tablaos : One of the pillars of culture and tourism is up to your neck). According to the article, several of the twenty-one tablaos based in Madrid (which in 2020 was one fifth of all Spanish tablaos) were at risk of closings. The city council of Madrid then passed a legislative proposal submitted by the PSOE to declare the flamencotablaos sector a “Sector of Special Interest for the Municipality of Madrid” - however, the inclusion of tablaos in the aid plan for the cultural sector was rejected by the Ministry of Culture.

criticism

The tablaos were criticized by conservative forces in Spanish society as well as by sections of the left-wing, politically suppressed opposition. Some feared that Western morals would have too much influence, others saw the acceptance of the tablaos by an international audience as a political move to further consolidate the Spanish dictatorship. There were also critical voices from among the ranks of the flamenco artists. So judged the singer Chato de la Isla , who had worked in important tablaos in Madrid since the 1960s, that the artists would “burn themselves” in the routine of the tablaos. Always the same Soleares and Alegrías shot into the herb. It's good for tourism, but if you enjoy listening to flamenco, don't go there. There is noise and screeching - that is not flamenco.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dictionnaire de la lengue española de la Real Academia Española. Retrieved July 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Spain's barefoot countess - Arte documentary about Ava Gardner. In: Tagesspiegel. June 24, 2018, accessed July 16, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Manuel Ríos Ruiz: Los tablaos, escenarios permanentes del arte flamenco. In: Jondoweb.com. Retrieved July 16, 2020 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . Alianza Editorial, Madrid 2004, ISBN 978-84-206-4325-0 , p. 259 .
  5. ^ Sheila Guzmán: Lucero Tena, la mexicana que hizo taconear a Reagan. In: debate.com. August 1, 2017, accessed July 18, 2020 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 260 .
  7. ↑ Our story. In: Corral de la Morería. Retrieved July 16, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Luis Mazzarasa: El quejido de los tablaos flamencos. In: El País. June 4, 2020, accessed July 16, 2020 .
  9. ↑ José Blas Vega, Manuel Ríos Ruíz: Diccionario enciclopédico ilustrado del Flamenco (2 vols.) . Editorial Cinterco, Madrid 1990, ISBN 84-86365-27-9 , p. 722 .
  10. ↑ Fernando Neira: Cierra Casa Patas, templo por antonomasia del flamenco en Madrid. In: El País. May 30, 2020, accessed July 16, 2020 (Spanish).
  11. ^ Julio Bravo: Tablaos Flamencos: un pilar cultural y turístico con el agua al cuello. In: ABC. July 18, 2020, accessed July 18, 2020 (Spanish).
  12. ↑ El arte de vivir el flamenco. Retrieved July 16, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 260-261 .

Web links

Commons : Tablaos  - collection of images, videos and audio files