Cafés, tablaos and a theatre
A short history of Madrid flamenco
From a newspaper report in 1847 to cafés cantantes, the first tablao in 1954 and a theatre of its own, how flamenco came to Madrid's stages.
Reserve your seat in Malasaña ↗First mentions in the press
The Comunidad de Madrid places the first documentary references to flamenco as a musical genre in the city's press in the middle of the 19th century. On 6 June 1847, the newspaper El Espectador used the word flamenco for a performer in an article titled "Un cantante flamenco". A first reference to flamenco music appears in La Nación on 18 February 1853. The art form came from Andalusia, but Madrid was writing about it early.
The cafés cantantes
As the 19th century wore on, the cultural elite judged flamenco unworthy of theatre stages, and it moved into the cafés cantantes, among them the San Fernando and the Café de Marte. Performers turned professional there, and the singer La Niña de los Peines debuted at the Café Brillante. Seville had its own café culture: in 1881, Silverio Franconetti opened the first flamenco singer café there. These cafés shaped the professional artist.
From café to tablao
The first tablao in Spain was Zambra, which opened in Madrid in 1954, according to the Comunidad de Madrid. A tablao is a place where flamenco shows are performed, and the word also names the flamenco dance floor. Other tablaos followed, and the Comunidad says Madrid's flamenco cannot be understood without the Teatro Pavón and Zambra. They gave the city a regular, ticketed way to hear and see the art form.
Madrid's own sound
Madrid developed its own flamenco character. The Comunidad de Madrid says the district of Caño Roto, in Carabanchel, gave its name to the Caño Roto sound, a significant contribution to the history of the genre. In the 1980s and 1990s, artists such as Paco de Lucía, Camarón and Enrique Morente reached venues that had been unfamiliar to flamenco, among them the Teatro Real.
Dance academies and the stage
The Comunidad de Madrid's exhibition looked at the city's tablaos, its cafés cantantes and its historic dance academies together, which shows how much of Madrid's flamenco happens off the stage as well as on it. Teachers, students and professionals share the same neighbourhoods. A theatre that also teaches classes, as Teatro Flamenco Madrid does, belongs to that tradition of learning as well as showing.
Reading the word first
Teatro Flamenco Madrid describes itself as the first flamenco theatre in the world, and the Madrid tourism board repeats that description. Read it as the venue's own description. The Comunidad de Madrid names the Teatro Pavón among the places without which Madrid's flamenco cannot be understood, so flamenco has had theatre stages in the city before. What a dedicated flamenco theatre offers is a stage built around one art form, all year.
Heritage, twice over
UNESCO put flamenco on its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010. In 2024, the Government Council of the Comunidad de Madrid declared flamenco in the region an asset of cultural interest of the intangible heritage, by Decree 10/2024 of 31 January. A 2024 exhibition, which ran from 9 February to 17 May, covered the history of flamenco in Madrid with more than 150 pieces, including clothing that had belonged to Camarón, Enrique Morente and Paco de Lucía.
A theatre of its own
Teatro Flamenco Madrid works from a building with its own theatre history. The Teatro Alfil, at Calle del Pez 10, opened as the Cine Pez in 1948 and became a small theatre in 1971. The flamenco theatre shared its programme for seven years, and in September 2024 it took full control of the space. It describes itself as the first flamenco theatre in the world, a claim the city's tourism board repeats. Whatever the ranking, the form that once avoided theatre stages now has one.
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