Paco Peña, A COMPÁS!

A couple of days ago, I went to see Paco Peña. He is touring with his show 'A Compás!' For those of you who do not know or have not heard of Paco Peña, he is a famous flamenco guitarist. Flamenco, the passionate guitar, dance and singing from the south of Spain, offers you warm (sometimes even hot & steamy) sounds, looks and dance. I saw him at theater Carré in Amsterdam on the Amstel. The theater added to the atmosphere and during the interval they served my favorite brand of bubbles, how lucky can you get?

In this show, Paco Peña, the true master of the flamenco guitar, gives maybe his best performance EVER! Surrounded by three high class solo dancers (two gentlemen and a lady, in every sense of the word) a couple of guitarists and couple singers, Paco Peña lets his fingertips magically produce sounds from the guitar you wouldn't think were possible.

The dancers give an incredible performance. One after an other challenging the others to perform even better then they just have. Love, hate, passion, envy, it all radiates from the podium. Sparks fly through the air as they try to out-do each other. The energy levels are high, the moves gracious and inch-perfect, the footwork impossible to describe. The singers put so much emotion into their voices, it brings tears to your eyes. The male singer cries out his sad songs in such a wailing manner, that you immediately start thinking of things to do to help take the poor man out of his misery.

Although the show is preciously delicate and still at times, if I had to sum it up in one word, I'd use 'fireworks', better yet: 'FIREWORKS'. If you are only going to see flamenco once in your life, make sure it's this one!