A Ladies Date

This evening was fantastic (aside from me having to come home and listen to the loud NY boys across the hall make base-caveman sounds as they chug copious amounts of alcohol). Marleth and I had this lovely evening planned quite a bit ago. I had been wanting to go see a Classic Spanish guitar concert ever since I'd thought of coming to Barcelona. We researched it and found out that Manuel Gonzalez (considered one of the best Spanish guitarists in the world & a Barcelona native) was having a series of concerts this month. We bought our tickets a month in advance and planned a fantastic dinner prior to the show. Well, that's exactly what we did.

We got our tushies on the metro L4 and got off at Jaume. We picked up our tickets at Sant Jaume and then had dinner at Taller de Tapas which was thoroughly enjoyable in it's own right. After dinner, we lazily wove our way in and out of the cobblestone street side shops, had an espresso and took plenty of self-indulgent photographs.

The show:
This was one of the most magical things I have ever experienced. This sounds over the top for me, I know. Nothing ever impresses me too much, I know this. Hear me out. This man is an artist, a genius, a musical madman. First let me describe the setting at Sant Jaume: It's an old, small, intimate, beautiful, intricate church that was full of flowers and overflowing with lit, warm, red candles. It sits on cobblestone streets and hasn't an ounce of pretense. The church smelled ever so slightly of flowers and given the small size, there were only about 40 people littering the pews.

When he began to play, I took note not so much of the music right away, rather, the way this man held his guitar. Okay, so Spanish guitarist cradle the guitar more vertically; I know this but this man held, caressed and even looked at his instrument like it was the love of his life. The first song sucked me in, then the second, then.....

Then he began to play "Asturias". It is a classic song often done by Spanish guitarists as a staple of sorts. Many songs played by or written for Spanish guitar are names of cities in Spain and neighboring countries. This song's namesake being the former Kingdom of Asturias, a now autonomous province that includes the likes of Oviedo. The song was written by Isaac Albeniz of Gerona in the late 18th C. Why the history lesson? Well folks, this song, when played at least by the great Sr. Gonzalez made me cry like a little baby. For me, the song represented an intense, rapid, fast-forward soundtrack representing the cycle of human life. That's just what it sounded like to me and as I let myself accept the music more and more, the clearer this movie in my mind became. It was a beautiful, interpersonal experience that is going to be with me forever.

Also interesting, but in a completely different way was an original piece that he had written and performed as an encore called, "Interrupted Romance". It was this lovely, romantic song that kept being interrupted by other commonly recognized songs like the "Mission Impossible" theme, "We Will Rock You", a knock on the door (he knocked on his guitar), a precocious yet invisible fly that he kept following with his eyes and soundtracking with his guitar...even picking up an empty water glass disapprovingly and then playing his guitar with the rim of the glass. The man is amazing.


It was a wonderful night.