Forma Antiqva, María Hinojosa & Aarón Zapico - La Caramba (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

In 2019, the head of Cardinal Belluga [Motril, 1662 - Roma, 1743] fell and rolled along the floor. The stern, skull-capped, sculpted head of the moralist from Motril could not bear to face the Teatro Calderón de la Barca in aeternum, and so detached itself from the rest of his body. The fevered imagination of Luis Antonio de Belluga y Moncada regarded theatre, music, dance and, above all, women as the devil’s tools for inoculating man with sin. He recorded this in hundreds of pages and pastoral letters, where he detailed, with suspicious delight, the potential »gravely sinful« circumstances arising from dancing likely to encourage groping, the adornments and measure- ments of women's clothing, and the comedies and sainetes that he implored Philip V to ban. Nevertheless, divine intentions are inscrutable. Seven years after his death, the very antithesis of his being was born in Motril: María Antonia Vallejo Fernández, one of the most popular and influential artists of the last third of the 18th century. Known as La Caramba, she became the true quintessence of the sin envisaged by her illustrious fellow countryman: star of the sainete and the tonadilla, actress, singer, dancer, entrepreneur, free woman and mistress of several lovers. In short, a charismatic eighteenth-century ‘influencer’ capable of moving the masses, upsetting the powers that be, and dictating fashions in dress and adornment—those that the cardinal said caused »infinite offences to God«. Thanks to the tireless work of this woman ahead of her time, today we enjoy countless musical treasures that sparkle with audacity, brashness and wit, embodied in that genre, tonadilla escénica, which is yet to be studied in full.

In 2020, through the Festival Música Sur de Motril, we wanted to recall the musical memory of La Caramba, so we turned to the blessed hosts, Forma Antiqva and Aarón Zapico. María Antonia does not enjoy the honour of a solemn statue in her hometown, with only a street and a well-known breakfast bar bearing her name. However, her legacy flies sovereign and radiant among the wonders that feature on this album. What else would someone who only lived for art need? The story is twisted and wry: La Caramba ended her days as a blessed woman, tormented by what the terrible cardinal would describe as a licentious and abominable life. Her remains rest at San Sebastián Church in Calle Atocha, just a few metres from my home in Madrid. Luis Antonio’s head was kept for some time by the local police, before finally being returned to its body. Today, he continues to face the theatre, damned to eternal suffering.

Tracklist:
01. Castel: Sinfonía No. 3: Allegro
02. Traditional: La Caramba: Allegro ­- Allegretto
03. Traditional: La Caramba: Coplas: Allegro
04. Traditional: La Caramba: Seguidillas: Andante Allegretto - Allegretto - Andantino
05. Esteve: Los Duendecillos: Allegro - Recitado: Andante
06. Esteve: Los Duendecillos: Andantino Gracioso
07. Esteve: Los Duendecillos: Coplas: Allegro
08. Esteve: Los Duendecillos: Seguidillas: Allegro Moderato - Allegretto
09. Nebra: Obertura »Iphigenia en Tracia«: Allegro
10. Castel: El Arrendador del Sebo: Andante Moderato - Más Andante
11. Castel: El Arrendador del Sebo: Coplas: Allegretto
12. Castel: El Arrendador del Sebo: Vivo
13. Castel: El Arrendador del Sebo: Seguidillas: Andantino
14. Acero: Fandango
15. Esteve: Los Mormuradores: Andante Moderato y Cantable - Allegro - Como Prima - Allegro
16. Esteve: Los Mormuradores: Coplas: Allegretto Vivo - Andante - Fandango - Allegro
17. Esteve: Los Mormuradores: Seguidillas: Allegretto Moderato


Thanks to the Original customer!