The collaboration presents Manuel de Falla's early 20th-century composition similarly titled "El amor brujo" (known as "Love, the Magician," though variously translated), expanding the musical offering and embodying it in movement shaped both by Iberian tradition and a contemporary sensibility. It brings, among other recognizable and some revelatory passages, the famous "Danza ritual del fuego," the Spanish composer's ritual fire dance flaring up in Garrido's flamenco.
With Garrido in the lead and as choreographer, co-designer, and director, the show carries a notable performance history. It was commissioned, in a somewhat different form, at the bequest of renowned Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the headliner's countryman, who led its premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2015.
"The toast afterward was a beautifully shared moment since, previous to this project, Gustavo and I didn't have a personal relationship — though we both had long dreamed of working together," Garrido says in Spanish.
Sold-out houses and touring followed, culminating in a 2018 debut at the Arsht — where Garrido is a well-established arts partner (her "Bailaora" had them sharing a 2022 Latin Grammy nomination for best long-form music video) — with SFSO's founding director Sebrina Alfonso at the baton. Paolo Bortolameolli conducted an L.A. Philharmonic revival a year later at the Hollywood Bowl.
By now, Garrido's intimacy with these complex productions lets her meet their demands with aplomb, but in the beginning, the task could prove daunting. "I'm grateful Gustavo trusted me since I'd never mounted a work based on another artist's creation before — a responsibility I approached with a lot of respect," she emphasizes. It turned into a high point for her company, founded in Caracas in 2000 and relocating 15 years later to Miami, where their swanky shows have become audience favorites.
"It's been a great adventure to come into Falla's world and not lose my identity, finding my way into a story of gypsy life," says Garrido.
Colored by Andalusian folklore, the worldly and the otherworldly intertwine throughout the narrative — in flesh and spirit — fomenting ardor and affliction. Here, the widow Candela long endures fevered dance-driven visitations from the ghost of her unfaithful husband — murdered by a man he cuckolded. But she yearns to exorcise him, having found new love in the dashing Carmelo. That devilish triangle is squared off by Lucía, the lover who sparked the ghost's last-lived infidelity — and who might be a means to Candela's emancipation.
Originally conceived as a chamber piece in 1915, with dancers, actors, and a female flamenco singer, Falla's score went through different versions, moving to full orchestra and a mezzo-soprano voice by the time of its 1927 American premiere in Philadelphia. Piano suites have helped popularize movements from the score, including that turbulent fire dance, which in the tale turns up the heat for the exorcism.
Alfonso comments, "In my career, I started out with Falla's music by presenting a couple of dances from 'El amor brujo.' Originally written for a chamber ensemble, those pieces were easier for me to put together. But I became more deeply involved with the whole score when Siudy wanted us to do this project."
The excitement of working with a flamenco dancer-choreographer broadened her appreciation of Falla's aim to bring Spain's national sounds into the classical world. She points out, "His honing into folk melodies produces interesting orchestral effects—as in the back-and-forth bowing of the violins and violas and pizzicato which imitates the strumming of guitars."
Maestra Sebrina Alfonso keeps an eye on the dance and her baton on the beat.
Photo by Steven T. Shires/South Florida Symphony Orchestra
But this was uncharted territory, as no exclusive choreography comes with Falla's music, though "El amor brujo" has had various interpretations, prominently in a same-titled 1986 Carlos Saura film with flamenco giants Cristina Hoyos (Candela) and Antonio Gades (Carmelo) doing dance honors to the choreographic wizardry of María Pagés.
Having found rich open ground for her own concepts, Garrido says, "How was I, as a contemporary artist, going to delve into this? Doing research, I saw very few artists had staged it completely as a dramatic work. So that was a bigger challenge. I realized the importance of bringing in the rich colors of flamenco, given the immense love the composer had for this kind of music. Fortunately, that's something my company has mastery over, and the result is full of marvels."
Garrido underscores the interplay of legacy material and up-to-date invention in this. The operatic voice goes back to a flamenco cantaora, namely Argentina López, a rousing recording and festival phenom who gusts through representing Candela's soul. Yet Falla's score finds a complement in an orchestral prologue with original compositions by José Luis de la Paz, a highly regarded guitarist in South Florida and beyond. "He's composed for almost all my works," the choreographer says.
While filling in the backstory and introducing the characters, the opening section also strengthens the defining flamenco flavor of Garrido's creation. And as the artist takes possession of Candela's character, her steps are set to draw a portrait more reliant on the inner strength of a woman than on the crutch of sorcery.
"I started off with a seguiriya, a very deep flamenco palo [a rhythmic modality] that lets us portray a procession during a funeral wake," explains Garrido. "Here, the widow is watching over her dead husband and does an energetic solo of frenzied footwork. This can carry a lot of pain and proves perfect for this dramatic setting."
Keen on their roles as impassioned opposites pulling on Candela, two high-achievers from separate yet here-allied artistic worlds add their own power. José Manuel Alvarez, a bailaor whose hard-hitting, heart-heating footwork has won him recognition, will breathe masculine vim into Carmelo. And Broadway standout George Akram — his Sharks-leader Bernardo in the 2009 revival of West Side Story lauded all-around — takes impudence and dark desires for a spin as the ghost. SGFC's five-women troupe puts accents, grave and acute, on the action.
Garrido's husband, Pablo Croce, who directed the 2020 documentary Siudy Between Worlds, about the challenges of bringing her troupe to a New York stage, took charge of lighting and shared scene design with his wife. But for this flamenco multitasker, the pleasure of her family support doesn't end there. As the daughter of an admired teacher and dancer, she's happy to report her mother, along with the parents of many of her collaborators who are also second-generation artists, will be in the audience cheering the cast on.
"I'm so full of gratitude," she confesses, "for all the wonderful people, on and off stage, who've helped me bring this show to fruition."
– Guillermo Perez, ArtburstMiami.com
Siudy Garrido Flamenco Company and South Florida Symphony Orchestra in "Amor Brujo." 8 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org. Tickets cost $50 to $170.
