Benise Spanish Guitar

I loved Benise very first DVD, and this one is as good as the first one.
The live concert is mixed with music videos, which were shot all over the world.
Beautiful Photography and Video scenes, creates an atmosphere, like being there.
The post production is superb. Some of the older songs were very nicely rearranged.
I wish there would be little connection with live audience, but over all is very good and I highly recommend this DVD to people, who like Spanish style music and Spanish Guitar.

The DVD is well paced, the musicians and dancers were spot on professionals, well rehearsed, and the DVD's production values are very well done.

But the whole thing leaves me with a profound sense of betrayal. Benise and his desperately needed plethora of musicians, dancers, elaborate stage sets, and CGI all conspire to evoke well planned emotional responses from audiences of limited taste and musical sensitivity - all with a meticulously choreographed technical perfection that is insincere, mechanical, and an insult to one's intelligence.

The entire work fails utterly to achieve exactly what it pretends to do: evoke sensuous and erotic scenarios and various cultures that some audiences would believe to be "exotic." He shamelessly looted Spanish, Indian, Arabic, Hispanic, Afro-Caribbian and other cultures as if they were his to steal, and came up with nothing except an insult as a result. One example; "The Prince" was a hash of cheap imitations of Arabic and Indian music, and kept dragging itself back again and again to a Spanish flavor. There were blobs of someone's pitiful attempt to play the sitar, and occasional ejaculations of quasi-Desi singing to remind the listener that this is supposed to be Indian. The dancers tried to hybridize belly dancing and some facsimile of Kathak dance, to little effect; and relied heavily on the sexually suggestive undulations found throughout the whole video that they seemed to feel justified their paychecks.

Another example was "Aranjuez"; a shameless butchering of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez;" which doubtless has the late Spanish composer spinning in his grave fast enough to generate electricity.

Benise's guitar playing is the focal points of the performances. Or is supposed to be. Granted, he can play the guitar. He has chops. But he relies too heavily on gimmicks that have little or no musical value. His playing, while technically well done, is simply not interesting, and fails to create a real emotional response. And he adds to this endless posturing, moving the guitar in dramatic gestures, and occasional dancing that is embarrassing to look at.

Watching this was as if one were searching for the love of one's life while walking through a red light district, being seduced in the most cheap and pornographic way imaginable; and ending up with a quick-and-dirty-wham-bam in a stinking alley,,, and having one's wallet lifted in the process.

PBS! How could you do this to us?

Saw Benise in concert at UConn and loved the his music.
Very up beat music fantastic spanish guitar playing from Benise.
Very nice concert also if you get a chance to see Benise go
you will love the music.

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