With the fourth concert of his Latin American tour, Silvio Rodríguez and his companions closed his passage through Chile last night. They were intense days, music and emotion. Everything had been palpating since months ago, when tickets and more than 180 thousand people go on sale in an online tail tried to buy them on the first day of presale.
The demand was such that the producer was forced to add new dates until four functions in the Movistar Arena, one of the most important entertainment entertainment in Latin America, with capacity for 17 thousand people.
The concert series confirmed the enormous love that the Chilean public maintains for the Cuban troubadour, which returned to the country after seven years of absence.
For more than two hours and with about thirty songs per night, Silvio took the public for a tour that covers decades of history, poetry, love and commitment. Although the repertoire had a common base – a combination that linked classics with themes of his most recent album “wanted to know” – each presentation kept his own surprises.
In the first, he paid tribute to Víctor Jara interpreting “I remind you Amanda.” In the second, he gave with guitar in “Girón” beach “after they asked for a clean throat from the bottom of the enclosure, and closed that day with” The Dream Repairing. ” In the third, he gave “unicorn” and “history of the chairs”. And in the last one, he offered “La Tatagua”, “The sweet abyss” – perhaps because he managed to see among the public a giant poster where they asked for it – and, on guitar alone, he closed the room with “endless night and sea.”
Each function also had a referent of the Chilean song opening: Manuel García on September 29, Illapu on October 1, Patricio Anabalón on 5 and Nano Stern on 6. On each occasion, after their respective performances and shortly before Silvio on stage, the troubadour went to the dressing rooms of his guests, to greet, thank them and share a few minutes.
But the surprises did not end there. In the middle of the fourth concert, the author of “Hopefully” announced with visible emotion the presence of an endearing friend, sister of songs and struggles. The public exploded when Isabel Parra appeared, accompanied by her daughter Tita and Manuel Meriño, to interpret three songs.
Silvio, from the stage of the stage, listened and looked at them carefully. It was a moment full of history: Silvio’s reunion with Isabel evoked that mythical concert of the National Stadium in the early nineties, when Violeta Parra’s daughter, also accompanied by her daughter and other members of the Parra family, was the only guest.
The musical accompaniment of this tour runs, as for more than a decade, on behalf of a group of virtuous: Rachid López and Maikel Elizarde (Trovarrocio), Niurka González (flute and clarinet), Jorge Aragón (piano), Emilio Vega (vibraphone), Jorge Reyes (double bass), Oliver Valdés (drums) and Malva Rodríguez (voice and piano). “I am the one who sometimes accompanies them,” Silvio joked one of the nights, starting laughs and applause for his teammates.
During his stay in Santiago, there was also space for meeting and teaching. Some members of the group – Oliver Valdés, Jorge Reyes and Jorge Aragón – offered a master class in La Pintana, one of the most humble communes in the city, for children and young people interested in music. Niurka González and Malva Rodríguez, meanwhile, shared a dialogue on classical music in a local conservatory.
Between nostalgia and the present, between poetry and history, Silvio Rodríguez again confirmed that his work does not belong only to a generation, but to an entire continent. Four nights in Santiago that will be recorded as a new chapter in the love story between Chile and Silvio.
President Boric, one more fan
If former president Michelle Bachelet celebrated her birthday at the first recital, the current Chilean president, Gabriel Buric, did not want to be left behind. Days after receiving Silvio at the Palacio de la Moneda, he attended the last concert at the Movistar Arena.
He arrived without visible escorts, without protocols, mixed among the people. It was located on the first balcony in front of the stage. By recognizing it, the public cheered and chlorped: “Boric, friend, the people are with you!”
During the recital it was seen as one more fan among the 17 thousand souls that filled the enclosure: singing, applauding, excited. At the end of the concert, it went to the dressing rooms to greet the troubadour, musicians and the technical team.
Without the rigidity of his presidential investiture, he talked and shared relaxed for almost forty minutes. He thanked Silvio for including Chile as a starting point of the tour and confessed to having been deeply moved in several parts of the recital.
He told him that one of the songs that had played the most was “Moreover, I forgive you,” by Noel Nicola, who did not know until that night. Before saying goodbye, a photo was taken next to the poster announced the SOLD OUT of the four functions and with the group of Cuban musicians. “I wish they don’t have to spend another seven years to have them here again,” he said before the final hug.
Thus ended the passage of the troubadour through Chile: between cheers, songs and hugs. With the guitar as a compass and the affection of the Chilean people as a fuel to continue walking. Next station, on the other side of the Andes mountain range: Buenos Aires, Argentina.
