Requiem Flamenco a fierce defence of Earth

Arts Features By Alexander Varty

Publish Date: April 5, 2007

Paco Peña rhythms open vistas for the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

Technically, a requiem is a Missa defunctorum : a mass for the dead. It's fortunate, then, that guitarist and composer Paco Peña's Requiem Flamenco: In Praise of the Earth is just a little premature. The earth's not dead–not yet. But it's certainly in trouble, and Peña's Requiem is the CÓrdoba-born guitarist's contribution to its possible survival.

"All the signals are that we must stop burning so much fuel and being so contemptuous of our actions," he says in lightly accented English, reached at home in London, England. "We must make sure that we find some balance similar to the balance that has existed before, before we've been so outrageous with our consumption of raw materials, devastating the forests and the seas. If only I was so wise as to suggest the right action! But I am only a human being, so I just hope that our leaders take good note of what is now being discussed."

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tags: flamenco, baile, Paco Peña, guitarra flamenca