Music Film Factor has just produced a new flamenco DVD with 2 hours of previously unreleased live performances featuring Seville's acclaimed maestro Jose Galvan and California's flamenco dancer Elena Marlowe. Petenera--a Flamenco Drama in Music and Dance is a unique collection of traditional flamenco repertory as it is seldom performed today. It includes a 26-minute dramatic account of the suffering and loneliness of Andalusia's femme fatale Petenera who has haunted flamenco lore for over 500 years. An hour of additional solos complete the main program as it was performed only twice at Santa Rosa's Jackson Theatre in California in 2004. Add the bonus tracks of historic performances recorded live at Sonoma's Sebastiani Theatre and Plante Andalucia in Paris, France as well as an interview with the choreographer and the music director and let this exclusively produced DVD take you to flamenco heaven.
The NTSC and PAL versions are both available now online at Music Film Factor's website that faithfully reflects the DVD's design and includes clips for previewing: see musicfilmfactor.com (in English, Spanish, French and German).
Load Petenera--a Flamenco Drama in Music and Dance into your DVD-player and prepare to be drawn to the screen like a magnet - you'll forget you're watching a DVD at all. The dance drama is a unique account that evokes compassion for a woman understood by none. When Elena Marlowe, the most convincing Petenera the stage has seen in decades, magically enacts her return from the synagogue, you'll understand her suffering from the fear and suspicion that the villagers have burdened her with for so long. Additional tracks include Serrana, Siguiriyas, and Tientos that stand for “flamenco puro", and Jose Galvan's mighty Buleria proves once again that he is a king of the art.
The special archive bonus tracks include Manuel Parejo's Granainas guitar solo, Robin Brown's Petenera guitar/vocals solo from the music documentary feature film 'My Father, his Flamenco and I' (left in its director's cut version) and the unique recording of Jose Galvan's Martinete-Siguiriya - a rare document with its 4-minutes long opening shot from the wings and mysterious lighting.
Petenera - a Flamenco Drama in Music and Dance is is not your standard flamenco DVD. Its exclusive packaging makes it a collector's item: an elegant paperboard Digipack with a 16-page full-color Spanish-English booklet for liner note lovers and a beautifully printed DVD--an object you'll want to slide into the shelf alongside your most treasured books. The recording and editing faithfully transfer breathtaking performances to the screen and succeed in perpetuating Elena Marlowe's and Robin Brown's remarkable artistic achievements as seen through the eyes of Robin's own European film-maker son Michael Brown. It is story-telling in its true form that faithfully reflects Flamenco Arts' endeavor to pull the audience out of their seat and transport them through centuries of flamenco history.
Both versions have been pressed in a limited edition of 1,000 units each. Don't miss them.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
