Booming Fado - [www.thisislondon.co.uk]
Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:29 am
URL: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/gig ... d=23419282
Booming Fado
Simon Broughton 02.11.07
It's impossible to imagine fado like this five years ago, before the huge success of Mariza in the UK, who has brought renewed international attention to the music. But it is also impossible to imagine it before London's annual Atlantic Waves festival of "exploratory music" from Portugal, which opened with this pretty traditional, but spectacular, line-up of six divas of fado.
The traditional backing of Spanish guitar, Portuguese guitar and huge acoustic bass guitar accompanied Raquel Tavares, who, in her early 20s but clad in the traditional black shawl, launched into her first song and uttered the magical fado word "saudade" (longing) within 20 seconds. It was going to be a night of traditional or at least neo-traditional fado.
All the younger singers - Aldina Duarte, Joana Amendoeira and Mafalda Arnauth (quite a star in Portugal) - slipped easily between Portuguese and English to explain some of the songs to this mixed Anglo-Lusophone audience, although the Portuguese were the more vociferous.
But it was veteran singers Beatriz da Conceição and Maria da Fé who made you realise how fado needs to be lived as well as just reinterpreted. Beatriz - imagine Ann Widdicombe in a lacy black dress and shawl - was the star, with a theatrical gravitas and ability to make every word sound spontaneous. Mariza aside, Lisbon's fado is booming.
Booming Fado
Simon Broughton 02.11.07
It's impossible to imagine fado like this five years ago, before the huge success of Mariza in the UK, who has brought renewed international attention to the music. But it is also impossible to imagine it before London's annual Atlantic Waves festival of "exploratory music" from Portugal, which opened with this pretty traditional, but spectacular, line-up of six divas of fado.
The traditional backing of Spanish guitar, Portuguese guitar and huge acoustic bass guitar accompanied Raquel Tavares, who, in her early 20s but clad in the traditional black shawl, launched into her first song and uttered the magical fado word "saudade" (longing) within 20 seconds. It was going to be a night of traditional or at least neo-traditional fado.
All the younger singers - Aldina Duarte, Joana Amendoeira and Mafalda Arnauth (quite a star in Portugal) - slipped easily between Portuguese and English to explain some of the songs to this mixed Anglo-Lusophone audience, although the Portuguese were the more vociferous.
But it was veteran singers Beatriz da Conceição and Maria da Fé who made you realise how fado needs to be lived as well as just reinterpreted. Beatriz - imagine Ann Widdicombe in a lacy black dress and shawl - was the star, with a theatrical gravitas and ability to make every word sound spontaneous. Mariza aside, Lisbon's fado is booming.
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