Fernanda y Bernarda

Featuring Bulerias . Fernanda De Utrera . Tres Ases La Paquera . Bernarda Y Fernanda . Juan Habichuela . Fiesta Gitana . Miguel El Funi . Arte Y Compas . Lebrija . Fernanda Peña . Los Pinini . Bernarda De Utrera

esflamenco.com : “To sing like Fernanda de Utrera is now impossible; her resounding voice, this supernatural strength that arises from the bottom of the earth and the emotion in her face, will depart when she does, never to return”. Manolo Bohórquez, critic.

Andalucia Com : La Fernanda gained fame after wining the 1959 Concurso de Cante Jondo in Cordoba, in the Soleá section, and went on to become known as the undisputed queen of the soleares. La Bernarda is more suited to the fiestera styles and her bulerias and Tangos are full of excitement and overflow with frivolity.

The Independent : One anecdote has it that, rather than cause their mother to worry, they never let on that they were going to the 1964 New York World’s Fair, saying they were off to an equally fantastical but imaginable place called Barcelona. Their mother gave them flour to take so they had bread and a source of income.

deflamenco.com : How different Utrera cante is from that of Jerez and other flamenco areas. The soleá is more rhythmic, the bulerías more laid-back and the singers are especially fond of cuplé or popular songs por bulerías which make up a large part of the repertoire of any cantaor from this town, in part due to the powerful influence of the late singer Bambino.

allmovie : Fernanda graced the cast of Mario Camus’ 1987 House of Bernarda Alba (from a play by Lorca) and, thanks to dance aficionado Carlos Saura (Carmen, Tango), performed in that director’s stunning 1995 documentary Flamenco, which — per its title — brings together a who’s who of the flamenco community for a pageant of flamenco dancing.

Norman Paul Kliman : These are only two of Juan’s titanic falsetas from the legendary 1970 recording “El cante de Fernanda y Bernarda de Utrera.” The first is heard in the intro to Bernarda’s earth-shaking bulería “Todo el mundo nos separa.”

The Azahar Dance Foundation : What is flamenco puro anyway? Is it Bernarda de Utrera, after midnight, an old woman being helped out onto the stage at the Hotel Triana, as the full moon rises behind her, to sing a solea en homenaje to her sister Fernanda who is dying of dementia; as she sings the tears are running down her cheeks and most of the audience are crying too? That’s puro, claro.

Flamenco-world.com : La Fernanda is physically convulsed, flings out her arms, closes her eyes, evokes the duendes, seeks elementary undertakings that allow her to rise and fall upon herself until she scratches out the valuable jipío. She has a temple voice and rajo.