Silverio Franconetti

Silverio Franconetti y Aguilar, also known simply as Silverio (June 10, 1831 – May 30, 1889) was a singer and the leading figure of the period in flamenco history known as The Golden Age, which was marked by the creation and definition of most musical forms or palos, the increasing professionalization of flamenco artists, and the shift of center from private gatherings and taverns towards commercial venues called cafés cantante. Silverio’s voice was called “the honey from Alcarria”.

Silverio Franconetti was born in Seville. His parents were Nicolás Franconetti, born in Rome, and María de la Concepción Aguilar, born in Alcalá de Guadaira. He spent his childhood in Morón de la Frontera, and he learned to be a tailor. He spent time in his youth with the Gypsies who worked in the forges, listening to their songs. He was particularly influenced by one singer named El Fillo.

He soon decided to quit his job as tailor and start a career as singer in Seville and then in Madrid. At 25 years of age, he moved to Montevideo, Uruguay where he made a living either as soldier or as picador. He went back to Spain in 1864 to resume his career as singer. He started a partnership with Manuel "El Burrero" and both opened a café cantante (also called El Burrero). However, their different criteria soon caused them to break apart: while el Burrero prioritized business, for Silverio artistic quality was all. Soon Silverio opened his own café, the "Café de Silverio", where he invited the most outstanding figures of flamenco of his time, also performing himself regularly. His café gave a definite impulse to the trend of opening cafés cantante, which in a few years became numerous in all Andalusia and also in the rest of Spain. Although he was not the creator of the café cantante, he was the first café owner who tried to dignify these venues:

Firstly, through his own artistic personality, giving these schools a relevance they had not completely achieved [...]. Secondly, dignifying the genre in contrast with most cafés, who admitted artistic elements unrelated to flamenco, and even the flirts of the public with the women, including, quite often, the artists themselves. (Ríos Ruiz 2002)

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