Estrella shines on

Estrella Morente is back in Lisbon. She felt "a great need and a great desire" to make this trip. It had been her father's dream to join her on a trip to the city that so fascinated the maestro of flamenco music. It was not to be. Enrique Morente, considered a genius who revolutionized flamenco music, died in December 2010, just three months after a recital he gave in the Portuguese capital on September 15.

Exactly one year later, on the same day, at the same time and within the same Lisbon Flamenco Festival, Estrella stepped out on the stage and fulfilled her father's dream in a memorable performance.

Talking over breakfast in the heart of the city the next day, she explains that "anything that's done in Lisbon will always be unique, no matter how badly we perform, because the place where I sang was so sublime." She is talking about the Coliseu dos Recreios, the circular playhouse she filled to capacity the night before. "This ring made me dream that I was at a bullring or a circus. I will always feel at home inside this theater."

Fado fervor

At one point in her performance, Estrella Morente came down off the stage, walked among the audience and sang a capella . Spectators listened agape to that powerful voice.

But the real "explosion" came when she tackled a fado as part of her encore set. "In my heart there is always the fado; it is always ready in case it has to surface at any point during my singing. I think the Portuguese public felt it that way. They immediately detect the love and worship I feel for this music. Flamenco song and fado got mixed up almost accidentally, and I am sure not coincidentally."

The author of albums such as Calle del Aire or Mujeres - nominated for a Latin Grammy for 2006's Best Flamenco Album - says that her father was there with her in spirit on stage. "I felt that respect and admiration for my father, and I knew that the memory of that unique night a year ago in this same city, which I did not have the fortune to share, was very present. [...] I had the good fortune of being the daughter of the first Cubist singer in the history of flamenco."

Morente is about to embark on a Latin American tour that will take her to Brazil, Argentina and Chile. On October 19, she will be back in Spain to sing in San Sebastián.