A talk about the famous Portuguese music genre fado is taking place on Monday, February 13 at Tavira’s Municipal Library, from 6pm.
The talk by historian and Algarve resident Peter Kingdon Booker will be about the history of Fado and why he is fascinated by it.
He said: “Ever since we arrived in Portugal, I have been fascinated by fado. What is it? Who sings it? What do they sing about? How can we tell whether a song is fado?”
Peter looked a little deeper into the world of Severa, Amália, Mísia and Marisa, of Alfredo Marceneiro, Carlos Ramos, Max and Vicente da Câmara and said he discovered that fado is properly a Lisbon phenomenon and that Canção de Coimbra (Coimbra song), with its different style and instrumentation, was a later development.
The song subjects of the fado tradition are many but they were originally concerned with royalty, nobility, bullfighting as well as lost love, melancholy and fado itself.
As fado is a living art form, style and subject matter are always evolving as new artists arrive on the scene.
Fado was recently recognised as an example in UNESCO’s list of World Intangible Heritage.
Join Peter on his journey of discovery of the purely Portuguese world of fado and saudade.
The talk has been organised by the Algarve History Association. There is no charge for the talks but monetary contributions are welcome.
For more information, please email [email protected]
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