Before the Café Cantante Craze, Seville Already Had Its Dance Salons

How was the café cantante, the cradle of professional flamenco, born?

«The king of the cantaores»: Silverio Franconetti. That is what his contemporaries called him.

Today brings Chapter V of this series, with this visionary and indispensable artist.

What fascinates me most is that art is not at odds with entrepreneurship. This man went to Uruguay, worked as a picador in the bullring and as a soldier, and when he returned to Seville he saw that people were crying out for flamenco. He had the courage to programme nothing but flamenco in his café, giving it value and organisation — and so the cafés cantantes flourished, changing the history of the professional world of the cuadros flamencos.