Adelaide Guitar Festival
Her Majesty’s Theatre
12 September 2024
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This wonderful programme opened with the Aurora Guitar Ensemble, twenty-eight classical guitars and one acoustic bass guitar, led by Dr Paul Svoboda. The result was almost orchestral with the highlight being the evocative “The Longing That Memories Can Bring’’, the work brought to life the music’s inspiration, the emotion that an immigrant to the goldfields must have felt when he realised that he was not going to find that fortune and that this is as good as his life was ever going to get.
What came next was simply a tour de force, Paco Pena’s “Requiem For The Earth’’. The packed stage featured two choirs, the second being a youth choir, the brilliant Julio Alcocer on percussion, in addition to Paco Pena, another two flamenco guitarists and finally four vocalists.
Whilst Pena basically followed the Requiem format, he did not compose a solemn work. Although a plea for the planet, it is powerful, almost joyful work, indued with the beauty of flamenco, it is thus unmistakenly Spanish with some Islamic influences.
Aside from Paco Pena’s brilliant score, what made this performance so special was the passion from all the artists on stage, from the Adelaide based adult choir, Rising Voices, to the fabulous guitars, led by Pena himself and especially the four singers. They sang with great passion and power, and that seemed to rub off onto all the performers. The energy leaping from the stage was palpable.
The libretto was sung in Spanish and whilst that meant that non Spanish speaking audience members, such as this reviewer, could not follow the text set out in the informative programme, it did not matter. What was impressive is that both Rising Voices and the childrens choir, Young Adelaide Voices, sang in Spanish also seamlessly blending in with the Spanish voices.
A special, unforgettable evening.