On Thursday evening the results of political upheaval were everywhere: Greek riots, stock market chaos, a dilapidated Euro, voters in the UK baffled at their election options.

But over at St Nicholas Church, a tale of political assassination, fuelled by greater passion and deeper despair, was being told by Rosario Serrano, an impassioned Federico García Lorca devotee in her 70s, who dances flamenco with a vigour and honour belying her years.

Seventy four years ago her hero, a socialist sympathiser, was murdered by Nationalists, so it was fitting her final dance ended with the heart-wrenching, impassioned rhythms of Siguriya, which captured the melancholy and waste.

The show began in Lorca’s native Granada with Rosario and fellow dancer Helena doing swift bulerias alongside busy classical Spanish guitars before Lorca’s romance La Luna Luna was recited.

Two guitarists and the fervent Fernando Reyes helped to trace Lorca’s life from Madrid to New York, to Cuba before he returned to the Spanish Civil War.

Despite technical difficulties in an awkward venue, which made it difficult to hear the poetry and to see the performers, Cancion Gitana produced a show that captured the man’s legacy.