Flamenco Inesita

Circle Star Theater

At the end of the 1960’s, in the winter of 1969, my former concert manager, Edward Perkins emerged from retirement. He offered an interesting proposition. This time he had a date set  for me to do a solo concert at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos just outside of San Francisco. I engaged a guitarist, Carlos Rubio with whom I had worked with on many engagements. He was a very experienced flamenco guitarist and possessed a good singing voice specializing in  popular Latin American songs. The performance was presented as  “theater in the round” and I was billed as “Inesita in Concert”.

The venue is an extremely attractive situation for performance and this was a fitting end to my touring life. I did thirteen dances and the program was concentrated in a circular fashion without curtains. The lighting was excellent. The presentation showed my ability to be different in each piece. The dressing accommodations were luxurious with a wardrobe lady to help with every detail of the costuming.

One of the dances I included was the famous Intermezzo from the Opera Goyescas by Granados. This piece I had recorded on the piano at Beckman Auditorium in 1965.  In effect I was accompanying myself on that instrument for the dance.

The main drawback to the experience was that we decided travel north leaving almost at dawn and staying up literally all night to return after the show to Los Angeles.  We left in our car with Carlos and a friend including Edward Perkins himself whom we picked up in Santa Barbara. It was an exhausting schedule for me and for my husband but a significant credit all around.

Perkins demanded his 20% out of my fee, so I hardly profited much from this contract except the prestige. But we expect this in show business. At least there was considerable publicity and advanced coverage. We had a full house. 

This was followed a few days later with my last appearance at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA in a long lecture-performance.