Review: PACO PEÑA:REQUIEM FOR THE EARTH – ADELAIDE GUITAR FESTIVAL 2024 at Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 12th September 2024.

Requiem for the Earth is a work written and performed by the great flamenco guitarist, Paco Peña. With lyrics in Spanish and Latin, it combines the traditional Requiem Mass with the exciting flamenco rhythms. Adelaide's vocal ensembles, the adult group, Rising Voices, supported by the Adelaide Chamber Singers, and the youth group, Young Adelaide Voices, added wonderful choral passages.

The evening began, however, with the boundless enthusiasm of Dr. Paul Svoboda and his 27-member Aurora Guitar Ensemble from Brisbane. They have endeared themselves to Adelaide audiences since their first appearance ten years ago, and have become a regular and most welcome feature of the Festival. Their performance tonight was greeted, as usual, with copious applause after each number, all five of which were compositions by Dr. Svoboda. He announced that he has now retired from school teaching but, fear not, he will continue to conduct the ensemble and, hopefully, he and his group will grace our Festival for many years to come. Tonight was a big thrill for them all, opening the Festival and supporting such a prestigious performance from Paco Peña.

From the first piece, If You Want to Find Gold You’d Better Crush Some Rocks, with its strongly rhythmic melody, to Insight, the much gentler first movement of the tone poem, Point of View, and on to the piece after which the group is named, the descriptive, Aurora, it was a wonderfully varied programme, showing the wide range of skills of which these players are capable.

The Longing That Memories Can Bring, a poignant piece, featured solos from Tara Lynam on guitar and Amelia Coorey with wordless vocals, then the very lively number, The Metamorphosis of Mick Maquire, adapted from a traditional Irish jig, brought this first half to a close amidst even louder applause than had followed each of the tunes.

Just as the great Argentinean bandoneonist, Astor Piazzolla, took the Tango away from dance music and towards ‘classical’ music, and as Duke Ellington took jazz into the cathedral with his two wonderful Sacred Concerts, so Paco Peña has adapted the Flamenco, borrowing from the Catholic church in the form of the Requiem Mass, a mass for the dead. The deceased, in this instance, is the Earth, not quite dead yet, but seriously ailing and being systematically killed by greedy humans. It is not too late to save it.

Requiem Flamenco, In Praise of the Earth, Requiem Por La Tierra, is Paco Peña’s 2017 heartfelt response to the destruction of the planet, an emotional powerhouse that carries the audience along with it, swept up in its passionate plea for help in saving the planet.

Paco Peña was joined by two other guitarists, Bernito Bernal Diaz, and Rafael Montilla, who will be performing in his own concert on Saturday. Four Flamenco singers: Bernado Miranda, Immaculada Rivero Cinta, Rafael Plantón Heredia, and Maria de los Angeles Martinez Toledano, and percussionist, Julio Alcocer, whose playing of the cajon drew great applause at every solo, completed Paco Peña’s ensemble. With such an illustrious group of performers and a double choir, the Requiem was filled with light and shade, and a dynamic range from the gentlest pianissimo to thundering fortissimo.

There was great sadness, condemnation, and pleading, but also an underlying hope for the future, in this magnificent work, and the audience appreciated every note, loudly applauding each part of the Requiem, from the opening Sentimiento to the closing Esperanza.

This was a powerful, moving and, ultimately, uplifting performance. The work ended with a joyous movement, a message of hope, that was repeated as an encore when the audience was apparently going to continue the standing ovation indefinitely. Another standing ovation followed the encore and the applause was ended only by more bows, the dimming of the stage lights, and the fall of the curtain. This was a richly rewarding experience. Bravo!

Photography, Kyham Ross.