Pen~a Plays Flamenco Guitar With Heat, Light

Paco Pen~a may well be the most universally respected flamenco guitarist working today, admired by both traditionalists and the crossover crowd. In successful flamenco performances, however, the tensions between preservation and creation must ultimately be resolved in favor of the latter, as they were Saturday when Pen~a and friends presented “Flamenco in Concert” at Veterans Wadsworth Theater.

Not that this was a flamenco show above meeting conventional expectations--and it was indeed a carefully constructed and dramatically lit show, though not to be confused with the “Flamenco Fire” show that Pen~a toured last year. There were castanets, plenty of sultry poses and enough massed strumming to power a week of Gipsy Kings concerts.

But here the stereotypical quickly became unique. The castanets, for example, were confined to one number and it evolved into an expressive dance for the supple hands of Charo Espino, who later proved she had footwork to match in her tempestuous, skirt-flouncing solo. In duos, Angel Mun~oz stalked her with feral heat and in his own footwork displayed stunning rhythmic independence, one foot pounding out an established pattern while the other tapped new layers around it.

The heavily amplified guitar playing of Pen~a and the Losada Brothers--Tito, Diego and Vaky--cut its own inventive, furious swath. Most of the untitled, unannounced numbers were rooted in the so-called cante chico forms, such as the tangos, alegrias and bulerias of the second half or the folk song and dance that closed the first half. Singer Angel Gabarre demonstrated that power and passion need not preclude intelligibility or tonal warmth in his featured Granaina, and kept the ensemble pieces on traditional tracks.