There is a trap that almost everyone falls into when they venture into operating internationally for the first time. I call it the universality trap. It works like this: a project succeeds in one market, someone concludes that this success is replicable in any other market with the same ingredients, and the result is an impoverished copy that does not connect with anyone because it does not speak the real language of any place.
I have spent more than twenty-five years producing events in more than ninety countries. I have presented flamenco in Japan, Spanish music in the United Arab Emirates, and Latin American artists in Eastern Europe. And the most important lesson I have learned throughout that journey is not operational or logistical. It is cultural.
“Adapting does not mean diluting. It means finding the exact point where your essence and local sensibility meet.”
In 2014 we were planning a Flamenco Passion tour in Asia. The production team proposed what seemed like an efficient solution: a single format, a standard staging, the same show in every country. More economical, easier to manage, more predictable in terms of production.
My answer was no. Not because the format was bad, but because the question that generated it was wrong. The question was not how to replicate the show. The question was how to make the show feel true for audiences in Tokyo, Singapore, and Seoul while remaining true to ourselves.
That distinction — between replicating and resonating — is what separates agencies that build real international presence from those that simply accumulate countries on a list.
There are elements of any artistic proposition that are sacred and cannot be modified without destroying what makes that proposition worth anything. In the case of flamenco, the authenticity of the performers, the emotional truth of the music, and the visual narrative are untouchable. There is no negotiating there.
But there are elements that must be adapted intelligently: the presentation format, the duration of the show, the communication strategy, even the type of venue chosen. In Japan, the relationship with silence in the audience during a performance is radically different from that in Spain or Mexico. A space that in Europe invites shared emotion can create distance in a context where collective expression works in a different way.
Not understanding this is not an artistic problem. It is a problem of cultural arrogance. And cultural arrogance in the entertainment business has a very concrete cost: unsold tickets and sponsors who do not renew.
When we brought GIPSY KINGS by André Reyes to the Dubai Opera, we understood something that has defined our strategy in the Middle East ever since: luxury is the common language. The Dubai audience does not need you to explain who GIPSY KINGS are. They need to feel that what they are about to experience is unrepeatable, exclusive, and worthy of the space in which it takes place.
That changed everything: from the design of the prior communication to the arrival experience at the venue, through the printed materials and the way the artist was presented that night. The show was the same. In a language in which that show was wrapped was specifically designed to speak to an audience whose primary criterion of value is excellence in every visible and invisible detail.
And the result was a sold-out show and, more importantly, a relationship with that market that has remained active ever since. Because when you adapt intelligently, you do not just fill a room. You build a reputation.
The first: research before assuming. Every market has its own codes for what constitutes a valuable experience. What in Spain is perceived as warmth, in Japan may be perceived as a lack of preparation. What in Mexico is energy, in Germany may be excess. Those nuances are not improvised. They are learned over time or you hire those who already know them.
The second: find your invariant. In any artistic proposition there is something that cannot change without the proposition ceasing to be what it is. Identify that core clearly before you begin to adapt. If you do not know what your invariant is, you are not ready to go international. You are ready to dilute yourself.
The third: choose your local partners with as much discernment as you choose your artists. The local promoter, the venue, the communications team in each territory are part of the show even if they never step on stage. Their understanding of the market and their alignment with your standards of excellence determine more than 50% of the operation’s success.
I have seen extraordinary projects fail in international markets due to local partners who did not share the same standard. And I have seen modest projects become references in their territories thanks to local alliances built with discernment and mutual respect.
International success is not designed from a central office with a universal vision of what the world wants. It is built conversation by conversation, market by market, with the humility to know that every country has something to teach you about how to do your work better.
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