The luminous "long live the Valencian people" by Sandra Monfort

ManresaThere are exciting shows that grow with every moment. And then there is Terra de guapes, by the Valencian singer Sandra Monfort. There are tributes made with judgment and sensitivity. And then there is the offering to the Valencian people that on Thursday inaugurated the 29th edition of the Fira Mediterrània in Manresa. There are enthusiastic ovations. And then there is the burst of joy and gratitude with which the audience filling the Teatre Kursaal rewarded a show born from the pain and rage caused by the 2024 DANA and by political infamy, but also from the love for all the people who, with rubber boots and broom in hand, restored dignity to a people who were meant to be "buried in mud, metaphorically and literally," as Monfort recalled.

The aim of Terra de guapes is to "weave the memory of the Valencian people," to pay "a tribute to the culture and language that unites us" and to champion "collective strength, joy, and humor." It achieves this brilliantly by linking songs from the archive collected by Vicent Torrent and various popular cultural expressions of the Valencian Country such as the Mystery of Elx, the threshing song, the wake dance, and the fallas. All of this unfolds with five versatile musicians (including herself), with dancers Júlia Cambra and Carlos Fustel, and with costumes and a stage design that provide just the right dose of symbolism.

Monfort, who has worked on the collision of tradition and contemporaneity both under her own name and with the trio Marala, now celebrates the folk legacy with respect for traditional sounds, but without constraints. She does not propose major outbursts; in fact, she significantly restrains the electronic impulse. Sandra Monfort is not in charge raver –on the other hand, as stimulating–, but when necessary it lets go. For example, when the muixeranga runs wild, when the pasodoble accelerates, when it lifts the Magrana de Montaverner with electric guitar, violin and archlute, and when the violinist (her sister, Amanda Monfort) turns into a fanfare La flor de la farina that Pep Gimeno Botifarra has sung so many times, because Land of beautiful women is also a tribute to the Valencian musicians who continue to expand a tradition in which Sandra Monfort herself is fully entitled to be included.

In a show that is a "long live the Valencian people" that in some way connects with that Animal de sèquia by Sol Picó, which inaugurated the Fira Mediterrània of Manresa in 2019, the concept and interpretation shine, and moments such as El ball de vetlatori. Only with the electric guitar and with a spirit similar to that of Maria Arnal and Marcel Bagés, Sandra Monfort traveled to the end of mourning with sweetness and sorrow in her voice. At the other end of the emotional spectrum, she finishes Land of beautiful women singer La fallera strung along a staircase, embodied in a float dressed in red balloons and with a luminous smile that expresses the triumph of life despite the devastation, with mascletà included. A wonder.