Michael Lear: Part Thirteen Paco de Lucia Performs Concierto de Aranjuez By Joaquin Rodrigo Plus Other Indisputable Evidence Of This Guitarist's Divine Genius
By Michael Moriarty
web posted September 29, 2014
Here is the only performance of this masterpiece that I wish you to hear.
Why is that?
Well… for one… the legendary second movement, The Adagio.
However, don't quickly skip to it!
Why?
Patience!!!
If there are two first lessons to this entire article… they are patience! And perfect intonation!!
The first movement of this short but spellbinding masterpiece is brief and a pleasant hello from the composer and those who serve him.
The sacred second movement, however, is a lesson in all of the most important rules of not merely great performances but divine music.
- Patience
- Perfect Intonation
- Perfect Time
- The Perfect Story
- The Profoundest Gratitude
The profession of my life was theater.
However, my soul, from the moment of my conception, was always wed… no, inseparably and eternally welded… to music.
My "Profoundest Gratitude" is to God for His invention of Music and Diatonic Harmony, the divine balance that exists if only to be broken by the uniquely distinctive humanity of its composer!
Here is the Master Guitarist, with his equally inspired, fellow improvisers, on a most divine rip and tear through the thrilling universe of Flamenco!
The very beginning?!
PACO!
Seemingly tuning up… completely relaxed within his total mastery of the performing genius God has given him.
And this is just a prelude to the power that he and his friends are about to release upon us!
"Olé!"
That classic cry in the air is both a one syllable song of praise and an order to fly higher!!!!!
And indeed they do… erupting in an emotional explosion that carries this old man of 73, myself, through the most divinely painful glimpses of pure aesthetic, spiritual and sexual ecstasy.
A full and all too brief hour and 57 seconds of it!!
I had to be Spanish and Moorish at some earlier point in my many former and wildly imagined lives… but then again, I do believe any human being open to this performance in even the smallest way, must feel as I do.
"They are my soul!!!!"
"All nine of these divine artists!!!!"
"Most of all the dancer, Antonio Faro, the virtual movie star of Flamenco Ballet!!!!
A most divine and deadly Peacock!!!!
Atomically male feathers exploding all over the stage!!!!!
A most sexually sacred and shameless rejoicing in manhood!!!!
Yes! As I said, ballet… certainly the equal of my one experience with Rudolf Nureyev's genius on stage in Paris.
Thank you, Spain, for this unparalleled ecstasy you bring me!!!!!
God bless you, Spain!!!!
And, of course, God bless eternally the soul of Paco de Lucia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is, for me, the Emperor of Spanish Soul!!!
A soul the equal of any on Earth, now, then and/or to come. 
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty.