Madrid:Flamenco Today

I will be in Madrid this coming weeekend, and I want to see some Flamenco. I did a search of the site, and saw some of the earlier recommendations, like Casa Patas and Cafe Chinitas . I followed the links to their sites, and they are both open and seem like good places to try. Unfortunately, one other place mentioned, La Soléa, appears to be closed. However, a place named Monteleón was mentioned as an alternative similar in spirit.

Does anyone have any updates on Flamenco in Madrid? Has anyone visited these places recently? Has anyone tried Monteleón?

As usual, thank you for your help. -OhMike

La Solea closed?!!!!!!!
I was there a month ago and it was bursting with live! no way!! I can´t believe they have closed again (they did for a year not to long ago)

Andres Flamenco and wine lover.

Andrés, I guess my information was old. From whaty you say, it looks like La Soléa was closed but IS open now. Do you recommend it? -OhMike

Well, you never know what you'll find in la Soleá, but I'ld recommend it in a labour day and late enough (after 23:30 or 0:00). I don't like so much in weekends. Anyway, I'm not an expert in this.
Café de Chinitas is really expensive for locals.
Casa Patas is OK.

Yes I recommend it.
I don´t know what goes on inside La Solea during the week but from midnight on it really cheers up on the weekends.

Andrés

Some local Spaniards have highly recommended to me the show being put on by famous Flamenco dancer Sara Baras called "Mariana Piñeda" at the Teatro Calderon (Metro: Atocha or Sol).

Sara Baras\' web page

The price of the ticket may be a little more than the cover at one of the cafe's, but the show promises to be more spectacular and not directed at tourists.

I agree with the others, I enjoy La Solea and Casa Patas.
I did not care for Cafe de Chinitas, it was pricey, very touristy and the dancers looked bored.
I missed the Sara Baras show when I was there last month, has anyone seen it and give a review, I heard it was fabulous!!

Eduardo, thanks for the information about Sara Baras. I checked out her website, and found out that her performances are a "ballet flamenco." That is, they are like a ballet, with a story and lyrical interpretive dancing, rather than less-structured, spontaneous expression, which is what I had thought of as "flamenco." This is certainly educating me about the different types of flamenco one can see. The current work by Sara Baras is "Mariana Pineda," which is the story of a blonde heroine who is hanged because she refuses to divulge the name of her lover.

I happen to love ballet, so I was fascinated by the idea seeing Sara Baras and her company. They are appearing at the Teatro Caldéron, and one can get tickets online through El Corte Inglés. The price of the tickets is from 42 Euros on down to about 28.

Unfortunately, the shows are at 19:00 hours, and I will be otherwise occupied at that time during my stay in Madrid this weekend; otherwise, I would have loved to see the show. However, I do believe Casa Patas has a midnight show, which I'm hoping to make. -OhMike

here are some flamenco events:
http://deflamenco.com/agenda
IMO the most interesting is Rubichi at de
Peña Duende

I visited Madrid in late March and saw Sara Baras - she and the show was amazing. Great introduction to flamenco, ballet style. I think it was well worth seeing. Probably not a traditional flamenco, but she get across her expertise of being a flamenco dancer and a lot more... A+++

Last night I went with some friends to Café de Chinitas on Calle Torija, 7 - somewhere between OPERA and PLAZA ESPAÑA. It was my second visit there in about 7 years.

We, the 4 of us, made 10pm reservations but had tapas at a different place beforehand because I knew it was expensive to eat there. We'd called the day before to ask about show times and prices and were told dinner+show was about 65€ but the show+first+drink was 32€ so we went with the first option.

We arrived ontime and were lead to our table in the NON-SMOKING section, about two-thirds of the way back away from the stage. Hmmm... So my significant other, being a quick thinker, asked if there was a table for 4 in the smoking section - located just beside the stage. AND YES, THERE WAS! So we were led the back way passed the dressing rooms to the smaller smoking section and were seated 3 tables from the stage. PERFECT! It was a side-view but the dancers often turned our way AND we could PERFECTLY see their feet hitting the floor - something we would have missed by sitting in the No-Smoking section due to all the heads in our viewing-path.

As I said, we had 10pm reservations and the show started ontime at 10:15pm. The first drink was included in the price of the entry so we ordered one bottle of white wine to share and they gave us a tray of crackers - which I thought strange (usually it's olives or nuts or something like that, but crackers with wine and flamenco??).

The show was very very enjoyable and lasted about 1.5 hours. I was sure they'd shoo us out to make way for the customers coming for the 12midnight show but they did not and so we stayed for that one too, nearly everyone else in the audience leaving after the first show. I didn't notice anyone having dinner there either, just drinks (probably smart as flamenco places aren't well-known for their quality of food).

When the second show started and realized they were going to force us out we decided to stay and order another bottle of white wine - a Rioja. WOW. For that bottle of wine (retailing in stores for no more than 5€) they charged us 40€. ¡JOBAR!

The American couple (the woman studies flamenco) which was visiting and went with us had just the night before gone to Casa Patas in Madrid and said the two shows (Casa Patas versus Chinitas) were very different in style, format, and environment but equally entertaining. She'd thought the dancers at Café de Chinitas were more "Expert" and those at Casa Patas were more "Natural". Maybe she was just being diplomatic. I don't know. Next time I'd like to try the flamenco at Casa Patas or at Florida Park next to the Retiro Park.

All this month (April 2007), Café de Chinitas features Pepa Carrasco and she was REALLY something to see. Wow. Just incredible, so serious, so edgy, I think she may have smiled once. See photo below:



Saludos, MadridMan

After missing out on going to a flamenco show in Cordoba last week due to the weather(hailstones + heavy rain in May would you believe)We opted to go to a show in Seville, very dissappointed in the Casa de la Memoria on calle Ximénez de Enciso, 13 Euro for an hours show where the dancers looked very bored and to be honest I was glad when they finished, then onto Madrid and on the strength of this messageboard we opted to try Casa Patas on Tuesday evening, 28 Euro for the show and the first drink, we arrived at 10.15 and were shown to our table, show started at 10.30 and in my opinion was just about as good as anything dished up in Seville, plenty of passion in the singing and plenty of sweat over the front row
nice work Patas, I may be returning later
oh and a big up to Hostal Adriano still a great hostal
Luego