Johnny Ventura’s farewell includes an orchestra and a caravan
The Dominican Republic honors the merengue music legend Johnny Ventura with a funeral procession, an orchestra, merengue music, and a caravan through his neighborhood.
The first stage of this heartbreaking goodbye to the greatest Dominican performer begins at the Palacio de Los Deportes, in Santo Domingo, where people can pay their respects starting at 8 am.
Starting at 10:30am, the farewell will be broadcast live on the official Instagram account @johnnyventuraoficial until 1:30 pm.
Producer Edilenia Tactuk said that people will be able to enter and make a line of honor and then leave shortly after.
“There will be no seats for people in the Palacio de Los Deportes, only family, friends, and the press will have access to the seats, because it is not a show to witness”, she explained to the local press.
People can follow up through national TV through Color Vision (as the parent channel), Telemicro, Telesistema, Channel 4RD, CDN 37, Channel 29, and TV Quisqueya (for the United States).
Orchestra
The orchestra, directed by maestro Henry Jiménez, with whom the merenguero entertained his parties, backs a legion of artists who already confirmed their performances.
As Tactuk explained, others will join the event, although, in the particular case of Juan Luis Guerra, his presence has not been confirmed.
The production company announced that, at the request of the family, Manny Cruz will premiere the merengue that he recorded with Johnny.
Also, the pianist Janina Rosado, who once belonged to her orchestra and is the musical director of Juan Luis’s group 4.40, will go up to pay him a special tribute and will tell an emotional anecdote that she lived with the merenguero.
Ventura cultivated friendships with great foreign artists. Thus, famous international performers already confirmed their performance at tomorrow’s farewell at the Palacio de los Deportes, located in the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.
Puerto Rican salsa singer Gilberto Santa Rosa was among the first to confirm his participation.
A beautiful stage has been designed for the event, which was created by Omar Martí, son of the late comedian and singer Luisito Martí (a member of the Combo Show).
“The scenography has a very special meaning, because Omar, Luisito’s son, has had the honor of setting it up, you can’t imagine, there have been many feelings here,” said Tactuk.
In Villa Juana, the caravan intends to travel the streets of Máximo Gómez, Tunti Cáceres, Moca, and Mauricio Báez, where they are part of their origins until the time of his death, which occurred on July 28th, 2021, due to a heart attack, in Santiago. He was 81 years old.
After the honors by his neighborhood, Ventura will be transferred to the Cristo Redentor cemetery for a Christian burial.