• Homage to Concha Velasco, all strength, all courage, by José Sacristán
  • Opinion Concha Velasco, the Excellent Actress, the Exceptional Woman, by Carlos Toro

The event took place in the Mata Hari room of the Palace Hotel in Madrid. Concha Velasco, wearing very thin red heels and with that expansive smile that is the hallmark of the house, arrived last. Inside, Nuria Espert and Julia Gutiérrez Caba were waiting. All three coincided at the start of the 2017 Madrid billboard. With that excuse, I was able to put them together to talk about theater and life. A meeting that the actress attended with the same enthusiasm with which she faced her theatrical premieres. "Being with Espert and Julia Gutiérrez Caba is a lot!" he repeated.

She liked to see herself among such respected colleagues. And she even ended up directing the photo shoot: "Nuria, you in the center, you're the important one." Because Concha Velasco was generous with her colleagues and admired those who, like her, were able to fill a stage just with their presence. "I've chased actresses to work with them, even Nati Mistral, who had to have courage!"

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The life of Concha Velasco, Doña Concha... Velasco

  • Written by: EL MUNDO Madrid

The life of Concha Velasco, Doña Concha... Velasco

You could tell that, despite the fame of film and television, what really turned the actress on was the theater. Above all, fill it up. "You have to fill up not to get rich and buy a yacht or a house in Marbella, but to be able to continue in this."

She persevered in such a difficult profession for just over six decades: from being a chorus girl in Celia Gámez's revues to La Habitación de María, written by her son, Manuel, with which she retired from the stage in 2020. In between, he did everything: great musical productions, Greek tragedies, contemporary dramaturgy (Antonio Gala and Marsillach gave him some of his greatest hits), classics such asthe Tenorio, dramas, comedies... There was not, and perhaps never will be, an actress capable of covering such a wide range of registers as she was. Because Velasco could go from Mamá quiero ser artista to Hécuba, without messing up, adding layers and nuances to her best creation, which was always Concha herself.

And the public was always loyal to him. Among her unforgettable performances, Buenas noches, madre with Mary Carrillo (Concha always remembered with amusement the perrerías that were done on stage); The arrears of the beguinage of Santa María Egipciaca, by Martín Recuerda; The Rose Tattoo, by Tennessee Williams; Filomena Marturano, by Eduardo de Filippo; I'll get off next time—and you?—with your dearest Sacristan. And in his last stage, La vida por adelante, with a memorable Madame Rosa, in which for the first time the 'older' actress, or Queen Juana, was seen, which gave him his second National Theatre Award.

There were also setbacks, of course. Megalomaniacal productions with which she went bankrupt along with her husband and producer Paco Marsó. "I would tell him I wanted to go down a staircase and he would pay me three. I'm still paying for Hello Dolly spotlights," she told her teammates at that meeting. But I would have done it again.

Because Concha had the poison of the theater inside. For this reason, his farewell has been at the Teatro de La Latina. Because great comedians have to be dismissed on stage. And Concha was of that lineage. There will be no other like it.

José Luis Romo is artistic director of Matadero de Madrid

  • Concha Velasco
  • cinema
  • theatre