Where is fado music from

Lisbon fado is customarily sung by female singers. It is incredibly mournful, soulful and emotive. Coimbra fado originated via the traditions of the University of Coimbra. Keeping to tradition, Coimbra Fado performers will still dress in traditional university robes and capes during each performance. It is said that Coimbra is a form of fado intended to appeal to upper class folk with formal educations; something not everyone in Portugal had access to during these times.

Contrary to Lisbon fado, Coimbra fado is noticeably more uptempo and cheerful. As I said, your visit to Lisbon will not be without at least one fado experience at some point in the city center. While Mouraria in the north might have been the birthplace of most of the performers, there is money in the tourist-hubs, so all of the entertainers flock down to the Alfama and Bairro Alto to put on their shows.

Most included dinner, but there are also bars that offer the experience. The bars and restaurants that offer fado to tourists will usually charge a few euros per person to each bill as a cover charge for the performance. This fado theatre is situated in the heart of Chiado and offers formal, nightly performances in an area setting. They bring in the best fado singers from all over Portugal, and performances are staged with motion pictures screening behind the band, making for a full sensory experience.

For some great fado venues in Lisbon, click here. The new generation of fado singers upholds these traditions while exploring new approaches. They have brought fado up to date without detracting from the feeling. But when it comes to choosing, its best is to keep an open mind and give in to surprise. The Coimbra Fado is traditionally sung by men, by the university students, dressed in their black academic gown and thick cape.

Originally, it had a great instrumental closeness to Lisbon Fado, but it took on a more erudite slant in the lyrics and different vocal effects, while being performed in different spaces. The Queima das Fitas , the festivities to bid farewell to academic life, which take place in May, is the best time to hear it. And the Serenading Night , outside the old Cathedral, is undoubtedly a unique emotional moment. Some students have taken fado out of the confines of academia. The guitars are tuned.

The light dims. This is how the night starts. Although several tourist companies offer services, programmes and experiences where fado is the central theme, Fado houses are the best places to listen to it. With their very particular atmosphere in an intimate space, dining by candle light to the sound of a melody which you understand without knowing the language is a unique unforgettable experience. This site uses cookies to enhance the browsing experience and does not keep data on the identification of users.

Its stripped-down arrangements traditionally only the singer, called the fadista or fadisto, and a guitarist and its sometimes improvised or spontaneous nature give the form a powerful texture similar to that found in early American blues recordings.

The music speaks of longing, of memory, and of lost joy — though it is by no means a vessel solely for expressing the concept of saudade , a hard-to-translate Portuguese word mingling the notions of nostalgia and still-extant love.

The visceral emotion that is transverse to the lyrics and music. An inner dance you don't dance it! The emotion it recreates for those who are willing to understand it. That enshroudment in an elusive and hard-to-pin-down mood echoes another mystery involving fado: its origins.

They remain unclear, though there are two distinct schools of fado — Lisbon, which is what most listeners think of when thinking of fado, and Coimbra, which has a slightly different set of melodic and lyric conventions. This is surprising, perhaps, given the fact that fado has come to be seen as a definitional element of Portuguese culture. But Michael Colvin, one of the leading American authorities on fado, describes a state of confusion over just where the music comes from.

Others tell us that it originated among the prostitutes, the prisoners, the knife-wielders. Some say that it has Romani origins. Female Fado singers traditionally wear a black shawl across the shoulders; this is a mark of respect to the greatest Fado singer Maria Severa. Maria Severa worked as a prostitute in the deprived area of Alfama, but she was described as tall, gracious with the voice of an angel. Her voice would captivate audiences of rowdy sailors while she sung Fado based upon the hardships she had faced.

Maria Severa sweet voice was short lived, as she died just 26 from tuberculosis in For tourists interested in discovering more about Fado in Lisbon there is the Museum of Fado in Alfama and the Teatro da Trindade in Bairro Alto, which has good daily shows of live Fado. Lisbon introduction Top 10 Lisbon How long in Lisbon? Lisbon for families Where to stay in Lisbon? Lisbon on a budget. Tram guide Tram No.

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