A leader in the style of music

A leader in the style of music known as nuevo flamenco, Ottmar Liebert made his wine country debut Tuesday night before a sold-out Napa Valley Opera House crowd. The show proved to be a mixed bag.

Flamenco is a genre of music and dance that originated in southern Spain in the latter part of the 18th century in which Andalusian gypsies played an important role.

Born in the United States, there’s a musical movement derived in part from flamenco, as well as other styles of Latin music and world jazz. It’s been given the name nuevo, or nouveau, flamenco.

After he settled in Santa Fe, N.M., in the late 1980s, German-born Ottmar Liebert formed a band he called Luna Negra and launched a very successful career championing nuevo flamenco. Luna Negra’s initial recording in 1990 included “Barcelona Nights,” a tune that appealed to listeners around the world and propelled Liebert and Luna Negra onto the global stage.

Liebert blazed a new musical trail, and audiences were attracted to this new style of music for a number of reasons — nimble, articulate fingerwork; charming, uncomplicated melodies; and just enough flamenco authenticity to convince pop listeners that they had discovered something exotic.

No one would dispute that Liebert’s repertoire provides graceful and pleasant listening, even though the similarity in tempos gives his recordings a slightly homogenous feel.

And that was the problem Tuesday night. The concert was divided into a pair of approximate hour-long segments. The opening segment was repetitious and ultimately boring. I noted some audience members’ heads bowed, busily texting. Some left at intermission. One local guitarist slept through most of the opening set. It took the headliner’s switch to electric guitar on “Snakecharmer” to liven things up just prior to intermission.