AN INCREDIBLE CONCERT

 

Last night we heard one of the most wonderful concerts in our lives at Theatro Circo. It's hard to explain the music - it was so original and so hypnotic; simply mesmerizing. We were spellbound for an hour and a half. The group is called Nopo Orchestra - 7 musicians in a collaboration between Norway and Portugal. Absolutely haunting. What was amazing: the performers just walked in and took their places; then the music began and swept us away.

The stage before the musicians
came in. You can see that, for 7 
musicians, the instruments were 
complex. 

Rajan being shown our
seats before the main
audience arrived. 

            The seven musicians were: 2 guitarists - one, Francisco Sales has an international reputation, but the other was great, too; two drummers, but the drum sets were far more than drums, and the drummers were true artists ; a violinist, who wrung so much emotion out of the violin (and who also sang at times); and then two world famous horn/flute and horn/saxaphone artists who achieved a breathtaking range of sound and rhythm with their instruments. the first I mentioned was Rão Kyao who played mainly a range of long, bamboo pipes that reminded me of Ecuadorian music, and then at the very last, a traditional flute; the other was Karl Seglem who played the saxaphone at times and equally played a goat horn, which achieves amazing music and sound effects. You would not believe the spell these two particular musicians could cast. Again, so much emotion was poured into the music. 

            The melodies seemed almost Celtic at times, but the rhythm often sounded Brazilian, and the combination just swept a listener into a magical world.

I only took three pictures of them and their instruments, and then four more of the Theatro Circo itself, and elegant theater that is 150+ years old. Enjoy.

And, BTW, all three of the main musicians mentioned above are on FB and have websites if you want to learn more about them and where you can get their music.

A staircase to the next
leverl (there are three
more altogether.)

    

One of the entrances - for now
the only one they would let us
enter.

This is an elegant theater
as you can see. Red and 
ivory and gold, with 
paintings and sculptures.

And the magificent ceiling. This 
theater is over 150 years old

Have you ever attended a concert, expecting to like it and be interested, and then found yourself simply astonished by how beautiful it was?

A Concert by Singer, Armando Prada

Thanks to our friend, Mila Garcia, we heard this remarkable singer in concert last night at the Escalapios (where a lot of concerts take place in Monforte.) He sets to music poetry by Galician poets and then sings and plays the accompaniment.

You can go to YouTube (link here) for a sample of his singing but click to midway, as at first he starts off quoting the poetry and giving some background to it — all in Galegan or Castiliano — so unless you are fluent in either, you won't understand. (Although, his speaking voice is mesmerizing and is a true storyteller's voice. It can pull you in, anyway.) 

But do click to halfway through to hear his singing. 

This particular song — from a poem by Rosalia de Castro, a 19th century Galician poetess — is one he sang last night. 

He also sang two beautiful songs taken from poems by Federico García Lorca. One that especially moved me translates as "Nocturne for a Dead Youth".

We bought a CD for him to autograph, which we did very graciously.

The whole CD is of poems by Rosalia de Castro, and the songs are very haunting. She was born (and died) in Santiago de Compostela, so is definitely the poet for the area, although she is famous in Spain and worldwide.

I would love to post a picture of her, but am nervous about copyright in the US, so I will direct you to two sites that have pictures of her, one of which also has samples of her beautiful poetry.

The poetry site:

Wikipedia (which has a really good picture)

Do you like music from other countries? Do you prefer singing or instrumental? Who is one of your favorite artists?