The sound of Portugal comes to life in Fado — The Saddest Music in the World
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2019 19:00:28 +0000
When: Nov. 21 to Dec. 14, various times
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
Tickets and info: From $25, firehallartscentre.ca, puentetheatre.ca.
The musical genre fado is as emblematic of Portugal as flamenco is to Spain. While its roots doubtlessly go back well beyond the 1800s, the musical form first entered into the cultural mainstream sometime in the 1820s. That was when it emerged as the dominant style performed in the smoky, seedy clubs in Alfama, the oldest district in Lisbon.
The name roughly translates to mean destiny, or fate, and the genre is characterized by pronounced melodic melancholy, reflecting the hardscrabble lives of the maritime and manual proletariat whose life experiences were documented in the lyrics.
Among the most renowned early stars of the style was Maria Severa (1820-1846), but the biggest fado star was Amália de Piedade Rebordão Rogrigues (1920-1999). Referred to as the Queen of Fado, she played an enormous role in disseminating the music outside the Portuguese diaspora and is one of the biggest-selling artists in the country’s history.
So it comes as no surprise that Portuguese-Canadian-American playwright Elaine Ávila (Strike!, Kitimat) incorporated Amália’s music and spirit into her latest work.
Fado — the Saddest Music in the World is set in historic Lisbon’s back alley brothels and bars as well as the present day. Described as “part concert, part theatre,” the work follows a young woman investigating her family history to discover her own cultural identity and personal fate.
Ávila says that there are certainly aspects of this journey of discovery that reflect her own investigation of her cultural heritage and upbringing.
“My family left Portugal, specifically the Azores archipelago, for Canada because there was a lot of employment opportunity in places like the smelter in Kitimat and other hard-working jobs,” says Ávila.
“My grandfather used to play fado for me, especially records by Amália, and the music is so beautiful that I made it the subject of my first Portuguese play. She appears as a ghost in the play, who haunts the characters and also sings.”
Enter Victoria-based fadista (fado singer) Sara Marreiros who appears as the ghost of Amália. Marreiros released her acclaimed debut Alma de Terra in 2002 and followed it up with 2005’s Minha Luz.
A star on the rise at the time, and one of the few Canadian fado practitioners, health issues put her career on hold for a time. Diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, Marreiros was forced to step back from regularly performing.
Although there are daily challenges the artist must learn to improvise around, appearing in the new play is a great honour for her and a great opportunity for audiences to hear an artist who truly follows the “give 110 per cent or go home” approach to fado singing that the music requires.
“I was certainly familiar with Amália’s work, although I hadn’t really performed any of her songs,” said Marreiros.
“There are so many of them to choose from, so it was nice to dive in with a fresh start, not having my own interpretation or history with them. I see the play as both a play and a musical, because while there is beautiful music throughout, there is also a great deal of details, information, history and politics that I myself wasn’t aware of in some cases.”
A lot of that history and those politics are tragic.
Portugal is the oldest nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of Europe’s longest standing states. But it’s history is one of near-continuous invasions and conquests. Today, the country is considered one of the safest, most socially progressive and tolerant nations in the European Union.
But the sense of saudade (internal longing) that is so characteristic of Portuguese art, and fado in particular, never seems far away. Ávila suggests fado perhaps mimics the melancholy of the Portuguese condition.
Her main character certainly holds this view.
“I think that she believes that being Portuguese is a tragic condition, in that you have conquering Spain on one side and then the sea blocking you on the other side,” said Ávila.
“Portugal had colonies from Brazil to China, mixed all these cultures and left an imprint on the world. But many, my own family included, lost their lives at sea; more tragedy.”
Many of the classic fado songs are about such losses and the playwright says although she has used music in her other work, none has ever had the music carry along the story to the same degree. Fado quite literally defines the fate and destiny of the main protagonist in the play, and there are surprises in that.
Not all the songs that are part of the familiar fado canon mean the same thing to people in Portugal as they do to the international immigrant community. Causa Portugesa is a prime example. To immigrants, the song is a celebration of national pride and identity. Ávila was informed by a fado guitarist in Portugal that the song should never be performed because it is a “fascist anthem” from the days of dictatorship.
“Many of the songs written by Amália do carry the story in a way that they never have done before in any of my plays, and sometimes trouble ensues,” Ávila said.
“There are six main characters and the guitarra player Dan Weisenburger in what is a reverse immigration story. Here, the woman goes back to Portugal to try to understand her roots, using fado as part of that tracing.”
Marreiros says that having grown up in both Canada and Portugal gave her additional insight into the reverse-immigration narrative of the play.
“Definitely being there, having sat on those cliffs, stared at that ocean, met those fishermen and having lived there means I had the luxury of being able to truly tap into the essence of the place,” she said.
“Speaking the language and having ancestors from there also means it’s in my lineage and resonates in my blood, so the ghost acts as a kind of the soul or the heart of the story. I kind of hold the space for the character, and it was such a strong ‘yes’ when I was asked to do this.”
Fado — the Saddest Music in the World is directed by Mercedes Bátiz-Benét and features Marreiros, Natasha Nalopeao, Lucia Frangione, Judd Palmer, Pedro Siquiera, Chris Perrins and Dan Weisenburger.
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