Our History
The history of Tablao Flamenco Cordobes is the best reference for flamenco in Barcelona, par excellence.
Founded in 1970, under the direction of a family of artists, it has attracted all the legends of flamenco to Barcelona from its beginnings, establishing itself as a reference in the flamenco world without losing a bit of authenticity, faithful to its historical heritage as a flamenco tablao.
Barcelona, a Mediterranean city, perhaps because of its geographical location that opens up to trade, because of the constant immigration of Andalusians, or because it is a welcoming city and receiver of all foreign artistic manifestations, was, along with Seville and Madrid, one of the cities where the first singing cafes flourished and one of the places where flamenco was worshiped. In the 70s Barcelona was a city with little tourism, and La Rambla was the center of its nightlife. The people of Barcelona went down to La Rambla to enjoy the night and a relative freedom and bohemian in the last days of Franco's dictatorship. Theaters, cinemas, cabarets, party halls, bars that never closed... were concentrated in La Rambla.
In the Parallel, just next door, "revue" shows also triumphed, musicals with vedettes dancing with feathers and carefree comedies. A well-known businessman of Revue shows, Matías Colsada, owned a venue at La Rambla 35. He baptized it with the name of El Cordobés, after the famous bullfighter who received the bulls on his knees.
Then, Barcelona was also an important bullfighting square. Matías Colsada rented the venue to Joan Gaspart, another important businessman in the city, vice president of Barça and also President of Turisme de Barcelona for many years. The venue was inaugurated by La Chunga in 1970 and immediately afterwards they hired the dance company of Irene Alba and Luis Adame.
Their show was very successful and the owners proposed Luis to run the venue. Luis and Irene started a passionate hiring process, summoning all the great figures of flamenco at the time to the stage of Tablao Flamenco Cordobes. All the great legends, most of them already deceased, passed through that stage: Camarón de la Isla, Fernanda and Bernarda, Chocolate, Pansequito, Turronero, Farruco... an endless and extraordinary list.
This is how the legend of this emblematic space in Barcelona and La Rambla began to be forged. Throughout all these years the programming of Tablao Flamenco Cordobés has always been overflowing and amazing: Miguel Poveda, Eva La Yerbabuena, Israel Galvan, Manuela Carrasco, Pastora Galván, Jesús Carmona, Jose Maya, Farruquito, El Farru, Patricia Guerrero, and so many many many great artists.
To highlight in particular, the years in which Mila de Vargas, Luis Adame's sister, shone as a star on the stage of the historic Tablao Cordobes, until today: Year 2024, 54 years later.
The history of this emblematic temple of flamenco now continues in El Duende by Tablao Cordobes: A new intimate and cozy space, with individual recitals and a lot of focus on young talent also located on La Rambla in Barcelona, which always respecting the canons of the highest quality opens a new line in which it wants to give visibility to young artists, especially Catalans, and less orthodox expressions of flamenco.
