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

ManresaThere are exciting shows that grow with every passing 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 whom they wanted to "bury in the 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 manifestations 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 (herself included), with dancers Júlia Cambra and Carlos Fustel, and with costumes and a staging that provide the right dose of symbolism.

Monfort, who both in her own name and with the trio Marala has worked on the collision of tradition and contemporaneity, now celebrates the popular legacy with respect for traditional sounds, but without corsets. She does not propose great tearing; in fact, she retains quite a bit of the electronic impulse. Sandra Monfort is not in charge raver –on the other hand, so stimulating–, but when necessary it lets go. For example, when the muixeranga runs wild, when the paso doble accelerates, when it lifts up the Montaverner Granaïna 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 de Manresa in 2019, the concept and the interpretation shine, and moments like 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 ends Land of beautiful women singer La fallera strung on a ladder, 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.