Passion for Serrat in New York at the start of his farewell tour


Joan Manuel Serrat only have good words for New York, a city that, he says, has always been “very friendly & rdquor; with him, “never hostile & rdquor ;. The only thing she misses every time he comes back is those he met in the city and they are gone. “It is the revenge that time has with you: it takes people from you & rdquor ;, she says. She then reflects nostalgically on memories, “which are beautiful when shared & rdquor; and to whom these absences leave “a piece of emptiness”. But he also adds an optimistic perspective: “there are things that are born & rdquor ;.

What was born on Wednesday in the Beacon Theaterr New Yorker, behind whose scenes Serrat pronounced those words in a conversation with the press just after offering the first of his concerts farewell tour, It was a new endearing memory for the thousands of spectators who days ago forced to hang the poster of sold out. Because Serrat offered a recital that even he recognized had come out “very round”, close to two hours filled with 22 songsbut also with words, stories and emotions.

“Debut Night”

Dressed in jeans and a blue shirt and a black blazer, and just after starting with “Dale que dale”, Serrat recognized the moment. “Than It’s nice to be here, after the pandemic”. It was, he recalled, a night of “debut & rdquor; for him aftertwo or three years without going on stage & rdquor ;.

He also spoke of the date indicated on which the concert was held: April 27, the day of the Moreneta; the same day that, 43 years ago, his father died. And followed opening the doors to your lifehis family, and his three children before singing again.

That was the dynamic of the recital, in which it was spinning and intertwining songs and verb. They listened to ‘El romance de Curro el spano’, ‘Señora’ and ‘Lucía’ and reflections on the eternity of the characters “who do not age & rdquor ;. Quoting Atahualpa Yupanqui, he raised aloud what is a song and assured that not the “marriage of convenience” between music and lyrics that the academic definition speaks of, but what happens “When the music speaks and the lyrics sing“. They played ‘I don’t do anything else but think about you’, ‘Something personal’ and ‘The onion lullabies’, in which I take the opportunity to remind Miguel Hernandez and his death in prison: “remembering it in full light is the duty of Spain and the world” he said.

The Catalan was heard for the first time when, after remembering her father and mother, a working woman, even though her work was called “her work” in her time, sang the Canço de Bressol. And they also heard ‘Today for you, tomorrow for me’, ‘Chance is capricious’ and ‘Today can be a great day”.

Garcia Marquez Quote

Neither memory is faithful nor memories so sincere”, said at another moment of the concert Serrat, who quoted Gabriel Garcia Marquez To make sure that “It is not what one lived but what one remembers”. And then came ‘Those little things’ and ‘Mediterranean‘. Serrat also spoke of the “wartime for health and the planet” and boarded the climate change before saying that “it hurts the shitty will that we leave our children & rdquor; before reading in Spanish the lyrics of ‘Pare’, which he sang in Catalan.

The final stretch was for ‘From time to time life’ and ‘The party is over’ but they arrived amidst clamor two encores: ‘Penélope’, more spoken history, and ‘Those crazy little ones’.

public delivered

It was a recital that satisfied a delivered publiccapable of singing all the lyrics, armed with an arsenal of mobile phones that lit up and recorded everything, worshiper of a Serrat who, at 77 yearshas been soundtrack of their lives. They were people like Nora, a 65-year-old Argentine citizen who lives in Ottawa and came directly to the Beacon from the airport because of her flight delay. “I follow him since I was a teenager, I lined my student folders with cutouts of his photos& rdquor ;, counted. “Has a Exquisite sensitivity, it reaches your soul. It’s not just how he sings but what he says and how he says itis his personality”. Ella’s Guatemalan friend Yolanda de ella, who had come with her from Canada, highlighted about him “the trajectory of the struggle of solidarity with our peoples, who suffered dictatorships“. And assured. “like him there is no other. He is a poet. He is human.”

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They were also people like the Venezuelan Francisco Llanes, who could name the exact day, December 24, 1970, on which he bought his first cassette in Madrid: ‘Cantares’; his wife María Asunción Benatuil Valls and his 21-year-old son, Juan. “The grandmother (maternal) emigrated from Barcelona when she was 6 or 7 years old because of the war and at home we always listen to Serrat & rdquor ;, said the young man. “The meaning of Serrat for me is family history”.

Take it seriously

They all left stunned. And Serrat himself also left the concert satisfied. “On this tour there will be better days, very round days like today, and there will be days that we will have to row more against the current for things & rdquor ;, he warned. But what she also guaranteed is that she always will give it all. “I don’t remember ever going on stage like it was just another concert & rdquor ;,” she said. “In the most important place or in the humblest town, I have always taken action. taken very seriously. And if it hasn’t turned out as well as I wanted, it’s because I couldn’t do more or because I was wrong, but not because I’ve done a job dressing & rdquor ;.


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