Silverio Franconetti

Biography

Silverio Franconetti Aguilar was born in Sevilla in 1829 and died in 1889 He was the most important singer of the so-called Golden Age and his contributions to flamenco have been of utmost importance for the later evolution of the genre He was brought up in Morón de la Frontera, where his mother was from, and here he learnt to sing whilst still a child, listening to Fillo He wasn´t a gypsy but he mixed with them throughout his life, as his friend Demófilo explained, his first biographer Whilst still a youngster, Silverio went to Sevilla, where he learnt diverse styles of song and later went to Madrid However this lasted a short time as Franconetti decided to travel to America to enlist in the Uruguayan army, in which he ended up with an Official´s distinction On his return song, he added styles the melodies which he had learnt on the other side of the pond It is said that El Nitri always refused to sing before him as he was a 'payo´ - not a gypsy-, but the truth is that despite this antagonism, Silverio carried on enriching his singing styles, and set up a 'café cantante´ in calle Rosario in Sevilla through which great figures passed, amongst them a youngster named Antonio Chacón According to Fernando el de Triana he was the only artist who performed everything well, although it hasn´t possible for this to be proven as no recordings exist of the maestro