Felipe Lara
Who is Felipe Lara?
Felipe Gertrudis Lara, known artistically as Felipe Lara, was born on April 12, 1945 in Don Benito (Badajoz). He is the son of the poet Luisa Lara Miranda and the cantaor Felipe Gertrudix Rodado, so he grew up in an environment where poetry and cante converged — a double family inheritance that would shape his calling from childhood.
Career
To complete his training he travelled through different parts of Andalusia — Córdoba, Málaga, Cádiz and Seville — in search of cante at its most traditional sources. In Madrid he joined the Peña Charlot, where he struck up a friendship with the master Bernardo de Alcalá de Guadaíra, whose influence proved decisive to his artistic development. His career took shape in the mid-1960s and 1970s: in 1964 he won a prize at the 4th Festival del Cante de las Minas in La Unión and was a finalist on Spanish television’s “Salto a la Fama” (1964–1965); in 1966 he received the Gold Star of La Voz de Madrid; in 1969 he performed at the El Flamenco tablao in Bordeaux, and between 1970 and 1971 he took part in the TVE programme “Buenas Tardes.”
Palos and discography
His repertoire is among the broadest of any Extremaduran cantaor, spanning tangos, guajira, serrana, petenera, soleares, tientos, malagueña, granaína, cartagenera, minera and taranta, with particular devotion to the mining cantes. In 1971 Radio España commissioned him to present the anthology “Cien Estilos del Flamenco,” released on nine LPs and regarded as one of the most important contributions to the sound documentation of flamenco of that era.
Legacy
Besides his work on stages, radio and television through the 1970s, he is remembered above all for having brought flamenco into schools, universities and cultural centres across Spain, through talks and lectures that critics have praised for their deep knowledge and their role in reaching new generations.