An Evening of Fado, and More

Ever since I first heard Maria do Ceo sing Fado on a summer night four years ago, at Rectoral de Castillon, a "casa rural" in Galicia, I've been a fan, both of Maria do Ceo and of Fado. (You can read my post about it HERE )  

The following spring, 2014, when my husband and I went to Braga, Portugal for the first time, a friend at the hotel suggested other famous Fado singers we should hear — Mariza, Amalia, Anna Moura — and we've both been hooked on Fado ever since.

So it was our special good fortune that fall to meet a Fadista in Braga, Mariza da Luz, and   

become friends with her. Since then we try to see her perform every time we go to Braga. (We had started going to Braga for research on a mystery I've written that is set in Braga.)

     

 

                                       

     

                                                           

                                                                        

                                                                    

                                                                               

                                                                

                                                                      

                                                                         

                                                                            

Last week was no exception. Originally we had heard her sing at a restaurant, but Saturday we heard her and several others sing at a dinner put on by a Fado Association. As you can see, Fado is emotional and expressive, pulling a listener into a different world — and the singer, as well. Traditionally a fadista is accompanies by two guitars: an acoustical guitar and a twelve-string  Portuguese guitar (which somewhat resembles a bouzouki with its bowl-shape, although they are not identical by any means.)

 

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Not every member of the association is interested in Fado as a career; some are simply aficionados who took turns singing during the dinner. All of the voices were good, though, and the ambience of the evening was full of hearty good will and a deep love of Fado. (Nearly everyone in the room could sing the chorus of every single song.)  

I'm always comparing Fado to opera, especially the serious/somber Fado, the Fado that dwells on fate and thwarted destiny. If you were to take one of the serious operas  and cram the essence of it into one aria, you'd have the depth of emotion and the lyricism of Fado.
But, like opera, Fado has a comic counterpart as well, and the gentleman at the far right in the top row sings these humorous Fados (although, as our friend, Marisa, pointed out, they often have a subtle serious overtone as well, inspiring the sort of chuckle that can fade with too much thought.)
                 
                  Too soon, it was over. At the end of the evening, all the singers gathered for final applause and photos.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, a young man at Centésima Página, the bookstore/eatery we love to visit, told us a great deal about well-known fado singers and the history of Fado. He introduced us to a CD of Fadistas from Coimbra, a city famous for its male fadistas. The recordings are old and "tinny", in that they were recorded back in 1928, 1929, 1930. But all of the voices shine, their  power and expressiveness evident.  I've mentioned that Fado reminds me of opera, and this CD showed the operatic power of their voices. We left the store with a bag of CDs to enrich our musical library. As I have said before, I can never leave a bookstore empty-handed (even if it's CDs).

                                         Centésima Página - "The 100th Page"
                                  You can see the "100" in the window)

How about you? Do you like Fado? Opera? What is your favorite music? Do you love book stores and music stores?

A Thoroughly Pleasurable Week-end.

Time has slipped by, and I've been meaning to post about the lovely week-end Rajan and I had with a succession of special friends. It started on Friday evening when we went with Melanie and Craig Briggs to the city of Ourense, where a favorite fadista, Maria do Ceo, was giving a free concert in the Plaza Mayor. She was also sharing a new CD, this one for children.

Maria do Ceo has great presence onstage, and her voice is magical — expressive and emotional, as Fado should be. Gracious as always, she took time with people from the audience afterwards who

came up to speak to her and have pictures taken with her.

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We had arrived early on purpose, to make sure we had good seats. We were able to snag a good table  to one side, but quite close from which to enjoy the performance. Before the program began, we enjoyed a glass of wine with Craig and Melanie and watched the crowd as the plaza filled up.

Melanie

Rajan

Craig

Before that, as we walked through an adjacent plaza set up with kiosks advertising Portugal's fiestas, a familiar voice called, "Elizabeth!" It was a young woman at Braga Turismo (Cristina) who has helped me with information for my Braga mystery. What a pleasant surprise!

Our house

Craig and Melanie, by the way, sold us our house in Trasulfe, which we love very much.

They have another house they are selling that you can look at HERE. Craig has also written three books about their adventures in Galicia since they came about 15 years ago. You can learn more about his books and how to contact them HERE .

Saturday, our friend Jacki Edmonds visited from England. We met Jacki years ago when she lived on a farm in the province of Ourense. Even though she has returned to England, she frequently visits Galicia, and she introduced us to Elvira and José, about whom I wrote earlier.

Jacki is an artist who specializes in pet portraits and wild life portraits. She painted a picture of our

dog, Cezar, that has "pride of place" on one of our walls in Sacramento. Just seeing this portrait of him makes us miss him. Currently she works mainly in pastel pencils—you can see samples of her work at her website HERE . You can also visit her Facebook page HERE

I forgot to take pictures during her visit, because I was so interested in catching up on her news. Then Monday morning just before she left, I scrambled to get the camera and took turns with Rajan to get a couple of good photos. I think she is going to be one of those eternally young people, largely because she is full of energy and so interested in life.

 

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Meanwhile, Sunday, our good friends Terri and David Anderson had invited us all to lunch at their house.

Terri is an excellent cook and hostess, so her small dinners always have the sumptuous offerings of a party. (And she has given some wonderful parties, too.) Another friend, Mandy Rainy, joined us and brought her dog, Frankie, a rescue dog with a sweet disposition. (Rajan and I are dog people, so we were doting on Frankie all evening.) I forgot my camera, but Jacki took some good pictures:

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I have Terri and David to thank for hearing Maria do Ceo the first time during the summer of 2013. Things come full circle.

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   Rajan and I were taking turns with one of us traveling while the other stayed home to care for Cezar, whose health was failing.  Rajan came in April. I came in June. Terri and David took me to a special anniversary dinner for the restaurant/casa rural Rectoral Castillon one evening, when to celebrate the event, Maria do Ceo was the star. I had never heard Fado before then, but I became hooked on this art form immediately, and later Rajan became equally hooked. As I say, things come full circle.

A Wonderful Fado Singer

With blog problems these past few days, I'm behind in my posting. Last Friday was a fabulous evening at Torre Vilariño (a later post and photos will come), and we spent both Saturday and Sunday in Monforte enjoying the Medieval Faire (again, a later post and pictures will come).

First, though, I have to share a concert we attended in Quiroga by a fabulous fadista (Fado singer)— María do Ceo. She's very popular here and famous worldwide.

I first heard María do Ceo sing last June when she gave a concert at Rectoral de Castillon. At that time, I bought the CD shown to your left, and I blogged about it HERE.  It was an unforgettable evening, and my first exposure to Fado. (That was when Rajan and I we were taking turns with trips while the other nursed our ailing dog during his last days.) When I returned home and played the CD for Rajan, he loved Fado. Attending one of her concerts became a priority for this trip.

We went with friends Craig and Melanie, who hadn't heard Fado before, and they became converts, too. At the end of the concert, we gathered with others to get María do Ceo's autograph. She is a remarkable performer, and very down-to-earth and unpretentious after performances. Everyone was having their picture taken with her, and she welcomed us to have our picture with her too. What a treat!

After a long concert, she
still had buoyant energy
as she signed autographs.

She took time to converse
with people who lingered.
A truly gracious person.

She remembered my name (from FB
and the early blogpost.) A very
modest celebrity who makes you
feel welcome and at home.

I enjoyed introducing her and Rajan.

She was kept pretty
busy with autographs.

You can go to her website and see her CD's HERE.

We bought a new CD that we enjoy as much as the first one, and now I wish I had bought more. Each one is unique. The one we bought isn't shown in the Discography section on her website above. But there are many performances by her on YouTube at this site, so you can get a feel for her singing.

Fado, as I mentioned in my earlier post, is a distinctive art form of Portugal, similar in one sense to American Blues, in that it is emotional and comes from deep in the heart and soul. But Fado has a variety of influences, one of them Moorish, and you can hear that in the warbling minor trills in some of the songs. The word itself means "Fate." Usually the songs are about deep yearning and thwarted dreams. Some of them can have a cheerful beat, but it's a fatalistic cheer, dealing with life's outcomes. It's not depressing, though. It's a response to what life deals you. I'm hooked on Fado, and if I can find another Fado concert, I will. Unfortunately, we will be gone before María do Ceo's next concerts in Galicia, but we will watch her schedule and hope to hear her during our next visit in the fall.

María do Ceo is from Portugal, but she lives in Ourense, Galicia. Her songs are in Portuguese, but her singing is quite popular all over Galicia. Gallego, or Galego, or Galician—all are accepted names for the Galician language—is a sister language to Portuguese, so all her songs are understandable to Galicians. I read recently that Gallego and Portuguese share 85% of vocabulary. Our neighbors, in fact, have told us if we knew Portuguese, we would be able to understand Gallego.

Meanwhile, I hope you will visit her website and enjoy the video site HERE. I strongly recommend "Lela" and "Negra Sombe". But, really, they are all good.

How about you? Do you have favorite music genre? A favorite singer? Please share.

Fado - An Unforgettable Night In Galicia, Spain

Back to my recent trip to Galicia, Spain:

One evening in particular stands out. It was the 24th of June, the night that the moon was so much closer than usual to earth, a good setting for the music I heard that night, a music that pulled emotions closer to the surface of one's heart -- that haunting genre of singing born in Portugal, Fado.


I sat with friends, David and Terry and Marta at the Rectoral de Castillon, a lovely casa rural near Goian and Ferreira that offers fine meals in its unique restaurant as well as lodgings for travelers. My husband and I have eaten there several times with Terri and David. This night, Rajan was home in California, taking care of our ailing dog. Terri and David picked me up, and Marta joined us, for a dinner celebrating Rectoral de Castillon's tenth year in operation. (More information about Rectoral de Castillon can be found below.) But here is a picture of how the tables are set up inside: 

A delicious meal served inside was followed by an evening of song outside.

Space heaters warmed the courtyard where after dinner tables had been set up. The walkway above the stairs to the courtyard had become a stage with lights and amplifiers and a microphone. Two men sat on either side, one with a guitar, the other with a mandolin. Night had fallen (dinners are late in Spain). The stage was bright. The audience was expectant. The fadista, María do Ceo -- a petite woman with doe eyes and a demure smile -- quietly walked to the microphone. She wore a long black gown. A simple black shawl draped over her shoulders. She paused. The audience quieted. She began to sing. 

This was the first time I heard fado, although a writer friend of mine has talked enthusiastically about it for years. I had thought it merely the “popular” music of another country, much like the popular music that dominates our top ten and top forty charts in America. Nice. Cool. Etc. But this was so much more: The pathos in the voice, the phrasing, the nuances, the melody line—they all reach out and transport a listener to another time and place.

Fado is about fate, destiny, about how things can go wrong and what one is left with. Fado is a particular genre of Portugese song that dates back in record to the 1800s, but even earlier by word of mouth. Its roots are in cities, most notably Porto, Lisbon, and Coimbra. It became popular originally among the poor and unfortunate, was sung on the streets and in taverns. There are hints of a Moorish influence. (Portugal has always been a crossroads of cultures.) The music is characteristically sad, nostalgic, full of longing, recalling star-crossed dreams, lost loves, bitter-sweet memories. Its deepest roots reach into the human heart. The lyrics have evolved in modern times into a complex structure as well. Today's Fado is as soulful as the blues, as poetic as a sonnet. It's a genre like no other.

Originally from Porto, Portugal, María do Ceo is very popular in Galicia. (When I mention to my neighbors, Eva and Monolo, that I had heard a wonderful Fado singer, they immediately said, in unison, “¡Maria do Ceo!”) She is also famous throughout Europe and South America. Her voice is particularly expressive, and even though I couldn’t understand a word of Portuguese, I was deeply moved during every song. In the chill air, under a star-glittered sky, her voice told story after story. 

Here are two examples of her performances on You Tube:

Lela  and  Negra sombra  

                                                                                                                                                               You can also visit her bandpage on Facebook and listen to three more songs to get an idea of the full range of her artistry. The disc shown on this page is the disc I bought and brought home for my husband to hear, and he is now a fan.  

Visit, too, Rectoral de Castillon, which hosted this wonderful event:
The hosts are charming, the atmosphere is elegant, the prices are reasonable, and the food is delicious.

 

You can contact them and like them at Facebook

You can also learn more about their lodging accommodations on Trip Advisor

And you can learn more about Fado here and HERE.

What about you? Do you have a favorite musical form that touches you like no other? If you listened to the above songs, did one move you more than the others? If so, which one?