Charisma of Alfonsito Llorens Faces La Guillotina

The artist Alfonsito Llorens showed his influential and authentic charisma before the questions of filmmaker Jessica Mesa Duarte, host of the space «La Guillotina,» at the UNEAC Social House.

The renowned singer, composer, and show director, a Matanzas native by birth, recalled his beginnings in the Matanzas Lyric Group accompanying his father, which constituted a training academy in music and the performing arts, with personalities of high professional rank.

The Art School and his integration as an instructor in the 20th Anniversary Brigade, in the schools of Jagüey Grande, and in the Cuban fishing fleet completed his professional education and increased his preference for singing.

He had the fortune of triumphing on the television program Todo el mundo canta, which launched him to national and international popularity.

Also journalist Jessica Mesa stressed the love with which he lives his music, and Alfonsito asserted that «the public is his greatest spring.»

Who have been your favorite composers and artists?

«Pablo Milanés and Amaury Pérez, for their stage versatility. The Nueva Trova was motivating; however, when I founded my group La Dinámica, with excellent musicians, I began to delve into other danceable genres and I even take risks with guaguancó and salsa.»

But, does the bolero fascinate you? inquired the host.

And then he affirms that it suits his voice and style well, always with great acceptance from the public. «I believe it has to do with my way of saying things, with the intention I put into the lyrics, based on interpretation.»

(It is true, he possesses the gift of granting certain characteristics to his performance, which qualifies his voice and timbre as unmistakable.)

Jessica insisted on his artistic maturity, which distinguishes him as a juror of international contests.

«The first thing that happened was that I obtained awards at festivals in Europe, and that endorsement led me to the rulings on the works. This has allowed me to get to know multiple performers and composers from around the world.»

And the essence of La Guillotina appears from the young interlocutor when she asks:

In your opinion, are there places to promote Cuban and Matanzas music, and how would you define what moves in the entertainment circuit?

«Complex topic. Events are similar to one another, the casts are similar, live music disappears. In Matanzas there are many activities, but there is a repetition of repertoires that tires the spectator. We must change how we do it and ensure the budget is in function of the varied development of music.

«The dissemination of the programming is insufficient. Perhaps because it is centralized on social networks, which not everyone sees, given the weak connection. It is also worth studying audiences. You cannot take the same thing to all places and theaters.»

Does that mean that the diversity of the current musical spectrum should be broadened on all stages?

«Actually, each institution should have a space chosen in accordance with its category — to cite the Sauto Theater, a National Monument, and the White Hall, which are not the same as a public square.»

These reflections motivated the audience attending the Yumurino UNEAC, who opined about the incongruence of the chosen schedules and spaces, which do not correspond to the difficulties of the surrounding reality.

Alfonsito praised the new talents and those who have demonstrated their worth on different stages such as the Failde Orchestra. And he offered to share his knowledge in the training of young people and those who emerge in the amateur movement.

Jessica was interested in knowing his criteria on the use of technology.

«Ah, technology increasingly displaces live music. There are also dubbing, poverty in the texts of some performers who draw crowds. There are no shows properly speaking. Nor sufficient spaces; perhaps there are in the capital of the country. That provokes the exodus from the native land.

«Cultural policy lacks a strategy in that sense. Figures who manipulate the masses appropriate social networks on a worldwide scale.»

Projects…

«A next concert at Sauto before the year ends, with premiere songs, and also participating in a festival in Mexico with compositions by Silvio, Pablo, and Juan Gabriel, plus 15 works of mine. I continue with El Boleraso, at ARTEX and its facilities, in the concerts at the White Hall, at the UNEAC social house, in cultural institutions, in the communities, and wherever my art is required.

«Singing with decorum before our people is difficult when it is done with a little speaker in hand, without the appropriate audio. And know that I go through the same hardship as any citizen.»

We laughed together at the end of the afternoon with Alfonsito and Jessica. We are fortunate to count on the powerful and unbreakable lyrical and popular voice of the vice president of the Matanzas UNEAC, and also to recognize his accurate ideas about what Culture means and its good development in a nation like Cuba. That is our fortune.