Sold Out at the Teatro Real: Esencia Returns in Triumph

Every seat taken at the Madrid coliseum. More than thirty artists and a tour that would continue to the Liceu in Barcelona.

On 14 March 2023, Esencia arrived at the Teatro Real in Madrid with the sign every artist dreams of hanging in the coliseum: sold out. Joaquín Cortés’s return to Spain’s great stages, after six years without a tour, sold out the entire capacity of the Auditorio Principal.

More than thirty artists on stage wove together flamenco, classical ballet, contemporary dance and Spanish dance over a score that crosses flamenco with classical, Arabic and Latin sounds.

The tour continued to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, where a critic described the performance as “a storm in which, curiously, we find shelter,” the work of “a universal gitano.”