By Timothy Ruppert
After a memorably hectic few days during which the 2026 NFL draft attracted thousands of people to the downtown area, Pittsburgh needed to catch its breath—and then Duende: A Flamenco Journey took the city’s breath away.
Presented at the Original Pittsburgh Winery, Duende: A Flamenco Journey inaugurated Flamenco Pittsburgh’s second season with a stellar seventy-five-minutes of artistic virtuosity, an evening of music and movement that left no heart (or toe) unmoved. This season-launching show epitomized what the word duende promises: heat, passion, a dynamic enchantment rendered as the artist engages human emotions without compromise. Naturally, achieving such intensity demands exceptional skill, élan, and vision—and the performers of Duende: A Flamenco Journey possess talents that elicit magic. From the opening Sevillanas to the closing tangos, these artists astonished. Vocalist Alfonso Cid sings from the heart of the world, capturing the depth, breadth, and scope of the feelings that he finds there with a studied spontaneity as eminently fitted to capturing nuance as to articulating universal emotional experiences. Ricardo Marlow’s guitar proved brilliantly companionate with Cid’s haunting voice. Marlow plays beautifully, and his contributions to the success of Duende: A Flamenco Journey are nothing less than inestimable. Together, singer and guitarist achieved so thoroughly lovely a collaboration that one felt somehow in two places at once, as if Penn Avenue, for just past an hour, were also Andalusia—a strange and unforgettable effect.
The show’s dancers, whether solo or in ensemble, may also lay claim to unforgettability. Featured artist Edwin Aparicio performed his solos de baile with the precision of a surgeon who moonlights as a watchmaker. Within the framework of Cid’s vocals and Marlow’s playing, Aparicio’s dancing unremittingly awed the attendees lucky enough to witness the joyful intricacy and intricate joyfulness of this superb performer’s art. Valentina Beltrán created just as electric an atmosphere during her solo appearance later in the show, exhibiting grace and charisma with every flawlessly executed step. And while Aparicio and Beltrán shone like supernovas, Artistic Director Carolina Loyola-Garcia and the ensemble performers, including Abha Bais, Susan Englert, Rachel Klipa, and Athicha Muthitacharoen dazzled as well. Especially praiseworthy was the performance of the baile a palo seco, during which the dancers create rhythms through foot movement, hand clapping, and stick tapping. The immensely gifted artists of Duende: A Flamenco Journey together created an incomparable experience, bringing stories of celebration, anger, lament, and affirmation to life with unique beauty and distinct power.
In an event that lit the flame for the company’s new season, Flamenco Pittsburgh mystified the eye, mesmerized the ear, and revivified the spirit fatigued by days of closed streets, interminable queues, and absurd parking rates (the like of which I doubt Franz Kafka at his best could have imagined). With the spotlight just fading on the draft festivities, the real show took place at the Original Pittsburgh Winery as Flamenco Pittsburgh, a group to watch for in future, presented its exceptional Duende: A Flamenco Journey.
-TR
For further information on Flamenco Pittsburgh and their current season, please visit www.flamencopittsburgh.org or contact susan@flamencopittsburgh.org.
