Story and Photos by Stephanie Levin.
Feature Image: Alfama street decorated for Festas Dos Santos Antonio, Alfama District, Lisbon.
Fado Português- song by Amália Rodrigues
O Fado nasceu um dia– Fado was born one day
Quando o vento mal bulia- When the wind barely blows
E o céu o mar prolongava- And the sky and the sea extended
Na amurada dum veleiro- On the side of the sailboat
No peito de um marinheiro- On a sailor’s chest
Que estando triste cantava – Who, being sad, sang
Que estando triste cantava- Who, being sad, sang.
Ai que lindeza tamanha– – Oh how beautiful
Meu chão, meu monte, meu vale– My ground, my mountains, my valley.
Described as the soul of Portuguese music, Fado’s expressive lyrics seduce the senses. While Fado depicts the heart of the Portuguese people, its origin is tangled in musical history. Officially, Fado emerged about 1820 in Lisbon’s Barrio Alto and Alfama districts, a melting stew of seafarers and Moors. Some suggest it had earlier Moorish roots; others think it replaced the medieval chanson de geste, -a medieval narrative, or epic poem. A few believe it is a fusion of Angolan lundu, a Brazilian dance song of Angolan descent popular in the 1800s. However, there is no debate surrounding the meaning of Fado; it is the Latin word for fate, thus giving the music and lyrics both serious and sobering characteristics. Melancholy is the word most frequently used to describe the mood of Fado, which laments love, heartbreak, jealousy, betrayal, and tragedy, the hard realities of daily life. Paradoxically, rather than feeling a sense of sadness when experiencing Fado, it cultivates an innermost experience where one is drawn into the music and lyrics. Fado is a cultural music expression that the Portuguese describe as ‘saudade.’ It has no direct translation. Saudade sums up Fado as an existential, bitter-sweet yearning for something over which one has no control. It is infused with resignation and melancholia, yet so hauntingly beautiful.
My introduction to Fado was a decade ago at San Francisco’s SF Jazz Center where I heard Fadista Ana Moura, her deep timbre and elegant voice traveling through the Fado tradition. A few years later, the Mozambique born Fadista Maritza electrified the audience, and last year the innovative Carminho mesmerized the sold-out concert. I think of each Fado singer as an ambassador introducing and revitalizing Fado’s heritage around the globe.
I wanted to experience Fado in a more intimate setting and what better place to do that than Lisbon. The Fado houses are typically situated in the Alfama district, the oldest quarter in Lisbon and the second oldest in Europe. With an address in hand, I called and made a reservation, thinking it would be a cinch to find Tasca da Bela’s Fado house. I began my descent at the top of a precipitous stairway into Fado heaven, wending through a labyrinthine of narrow alleyways, cul-de-sacs, steep steps that inevitably twisted and bent around handmade food stalls, the air peppered with the scent of grilled sardines.
This was June, and the fiesta dos Santos Antonio, which celebrates Lisbon’s patron saint, was in full swing. Colorful banners flapped overhead; clothes hung from windows; neighbors socialized on cement stoops; and booth vendors hawked beer and grilled fish.
My Google Maps got lost, sending me up and down a maze of incorrect alleys. Alfama teems with vigor as well as a vast number of tourists resulting in the liveliest neighborhood in Lisbon.
When I finally found Tasca da Bela, deep in the heart of Alfama, I was the first to arrive, and perhaps because I was alone, immediately seated by the door at a small table by an elegant, tall, slender grey-haired man suited up in all white from head to toe.
His glasses, slightly perched on his nose and his dark bushy eyebrows gave him a theatrical air. With a bow, he pulled out my chair, seated me, and immediately perched a pitcher of white wine on my table. The seating turned out to be a plus as the two small rooms filled up. Most Fado shows are packaged with a copious prefixed dinner.
My reservation was originally for three, but my two friends bowed out due to illness, so the endless dishes set before me throughout the Fado show were ample, from the olives and fish tapenade to the cheese, salted cod, green beans, and stewed veal. I lost count of how many dishes were placed before me as the server implored me to eat more.
I counted countless iconic saints and small ceramics decorating the room, which also served as the kitchen. No exact décor prevailed, but rather a collection of knick-knacks that I assumed held sentimental value to the manager, Rosa, an energetic woman who redefined the word multitasking. Well-known in Lisbon’s Fado community, Rosa is a lover of traditional Portuguese food and Fado. She acted as our host, chef, waitress extraordinaire, as well as corralling the musicians who rushed out to smoke after each set. Her infectious energy gave the little fado house a feeling of home, a place to hang out just as the musicians and singers did as they gathered around a table not far from me in this intimate space.
I don’t speak a word of Portuguese, yet the mood, lyrics, and musicians in Tasca da Bela invited me into a unique musical journey, one that settled deep into my soul. The fado atmosphere is one of utmost respect, no one talks, jostles around, or texts on a phone. Silence prevails as the singer stands stoically, arms outstretched, fingers splayed, dominating the space in a melancholic, hoarse, low-pitched voice. Fado musicians always accompany the singer. Traditionally, there is a guitar and the Portuguese guitar, which is unique to fado. Its pear-shaped body has a flat back with twelve steel strings strung in pairs of two. Its captivating vibrato is an essential element of fado as it sets the rhythm that is the alchemy between the singer and musician. In some settings, particularly in large performances, there may be a 6-string viola and a small 8-string viola baxio-a string bass viola as well.
The majority of fado singers or musicians are not professional successes such as Moura, Maritza, Carminho or Camané, but solid amateur singers and musicians who perform at different fado houses or restaurants. Fado has an oral and familial link; the songs and music journey through generations. Fado cannot be taught; it is a form of musical expression that is purely Portuguese as it defines the soul of a country. Though, without translation, it’s sometimes compared to the blues.
The first fado singer at Rosa’s fado house was a handsome middle-aged man wearing a white shirt, and dark pants. He stood in the doorway between the two little dining rooms facing both the guitarist and Portuguese guitarist and began to sing in a rich, deep, distinctive voice. It was a short set of songs, then he was gone, disappeared, not to return, taking his incredible voice with him. Sipping my wine, I wondered if that was it for my intimate fado experience. It was not, but it was time for more food.
Throughout the night musicians and singers performed fado, then beelined out for a smoke break while more food appeared at the tables. The last and longest set continues to vibrate in my memory as I write this. Across from me sat two buxom women who arrived around 10:30pm. They chatted with a couple of seated guitarists; all. I assumed, knew Rosa and frequented her Fado house. The two women appeared to be perhaps 45 or 50. To my surprise, the guitarist and the Portuguese guitarist seated with them got up and took up the two empty seats between the two dining rooms. One of the buxom ladies, stood, smoothed her skirt, slowly sauntered over to the guitarist, faced them, closed her eyes, and began her journey into Fado with a heartfelt deep voice that silenced the room. I was sure her vibrant and rich singing could be heard on the streets through the closed door. The young Portuguese guitarist, with rapid finger movement and dynamic rhythms, unleashed an energy that electrified the room. The bond between the singer and Portuguese guitarist was palpable, like an umbilical cord. Immediately after the last song, the Fado singer graciously thanked her audience, then pulled out CDs moving from table to table offering the CD of her son, the young Portuguese guitarist. The one regret I have of this entire beautiful night is that I did not purchase the CD for 15 euros. I cannot move the magic of this young man’s playing of the Portuguese guitar out of my mind. The tradition of Fado, which in 2011, was designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO was more apparent than ever that night; the mother, the Fado singer, her son the Portuguese guitarist, the familial Fado link traveling down through generations, cherished, and cultivated the tradition to perfection.
It was midnight when I walked out of the Fado house into the busy Alfama nightlife. Energized by four hours of Fado, I knew my last stop in Lisbon would be the Fado museum.
Abutting the waterfront and gateway to the historic Alfama quarter sits the Museu Do Fado offering a permanent exhibition with interactive content focusing on Fado’s history via photographs, video repertoires, documentation, music, and instruments. The museu school offers courses from Portuguese guitar, seminars on fado repertoire as well as rehearsal rooms for fado performances to encourage the preservation and continuation of the fado tradition. The museu presents a multidisciplinary door into fado. A wall to ceiling mural of past and present famous fadistas and fadistos dominates the entrance wall. Several smaller rooms take the visitor through different aspects of the fado tradition. The fado listening room with large cushy chairs and headsets offers myriad options to listen to fado singers while reading their history and music log. I stumbled into the theater where I sat captivated by the oral videos and interviews of some of Portugal’s famous Fado singers and musicians, each discussing their personal sentiments and feelings toward Fado from its oral tradition and how it spread through neighborhoods. Others voices adamantly noted that Fado cannot be learned; its innate to the Portuguese Fado performer. For the guitarist, it is essential to listen and learn from the old Fado masters. A section of the museu hosted posters of past Fado favorites and their history. Here, I learned that, during the lengthy Salazar dictatorship, many Fado lyrics were banned or censured.
In juxtaposition to Fado censorship, one charismatic Fado artist holds a prominent and endearing place in Fado history, Amália Rodrigues (July 1920-1999). Rodrigues is credited with moving the fado genre into the mainstream music world. Known as Rainha do Fado (Queen of Fado) Amália Rodrigues’ extraordinary timbre, charisma, and beauty made her an acclaimed artist. Admired and loved by the Fado community, she was a major influence and inspiration in popularizing Fado around the world as she inspired a new generation of Fado singers. It is said that she singlehandedly placed Fado on the map.
I spent a goodly amount of time with the Fado instruments watching a video of the guitarros and their process of crafting and designing the Portuguese guitar from inception to finality. The glass cases showcased the different style and types of Fado instruments. Alas, I ended my afternoon in the Museu do Fado bookshop that houses fado CDs and books. Traveling lightly, a book wasn’t an option, so I purchased a few Fado CDs to bring just a little bit of Fado home with me.
My last night in Lisbon offered a fado surprise. Word jettisoned through Lisbon that Maritza was performing a free Fado concert in Castelo São Jorge, a 5 minute uphill walk from where I was staying. The castle theater maxed out at 800, and my friends and I were in the middle of the queue of 3,000 hopefuls. Clearly, no free Maritza concert for us, but to our surprise as we dined outside on the deck, we could hear the entire Fado concert. So, with our glasses of wine, we toasted to the best of Lisbon, Fado al fresco on a warm Portuguese summer night.
IF YOU GO: Lisbon Fado Houses- all require reservations; Tasca da Bela-Rua, dos Remedios 190, Alfama, Lisbon-Reserve by phone- 351-926-077-511, Menu: tascadabela.eatbu.com: O Faia in Barrio Alto, Rua da Barroca 54 56, Menu: ofaia.com, Reservations: ofaia.com; Café Luisa- Barrio Alto, Travessa da Queimada, 10, Phone: +351 21 342 2281, Menu: cafeluso.pt, Reservations: thefork.pt; Museu Do Fado, Largo do Charariz de Dentro No.1, Phone- 218.823.470, Info: www.museudofado.pt, Hours- Tues-Sun 10:00am-6:00pm; Fundação Amália Rodrigues, Amália Rodrigues house where she resided for half a century, Rua de São Bento, 193, Open Tues-Sun, 10:00am-6:00pm.