Looks like a serenade turned to the contrary. Four men dressed in black on the balconies, head raised, and eyes that never leave the Tagus, playing to an audience that will deepening here on the floor, on top of the cobblestone. Are singers and should be happy, they and we. This was the conclusion of a first night Box Alfama 2016.
it is Not just a festival. The Box Alfama, which started this Friday and that continues this Saturday, is a tribute but also is this happening, weren’t we in the oldest neighbourhood of Lisbon. The one male voice that opens in a scream singer in the Travessa do Terreiro do Trigo, tiles, yellow and blue, balconies tiny with sheets to dry, a fate whispered at the tables of anyone who dines in the street, the narrow streets and alleys with flowers, and valentine with her candle in a kiss shy. Alfama — "al-hamma", they said to the arabs — is all of this. It seems cliché but it is even so.
it Was once the entrance to the Box Alfama 2016. Credits: samuel matize
to get To the main stage Box Alfama is necessary to cross the Avenida Dom Afonso Henriques and face the river. You hear Spanish in one of the walkways, but much less than in previous editions. The atmosphere in the venue is familiar, quiet, quiet. Sell nails, bifanas and beer, and no more than five tables, each with four chairs, for the lovers of fado. Here one sees the constellations (if known of course), the lights of the 25 de Abril Bridge and the right hand of the Christ the King to bless the Stage Box. There are ladies shawl at the shoulder, the car seats to those who could not place on the bench. And there are no mobile phones: the cold is not a lot, but it justifies a few hugs discrete in public which sees Gisela João, the first artist to act on the main stage.
he Sang without fear of the accent, says-if desbocada but "there is blood in the gill, is the same in the vein". And is not afraid of words. Laughs, smiles, conversation and jumps a lot: "Are you happy? I hope you are all happy because it is still summer in our country and because we are a festival of the democratic where there is no fences to the front of the stage to separate the important from the less important". It is not only the voice of the girl-woman irreverent, which makes Gisela João: it is the form. The breeze from the river insisted on shaking the frills and the bright black dress of the singer and pushed the hair over one of your shoulders. There were flowers on the stage, on the other side of the guitarists. Had everything that was needed for that, when he came the long-awaited "My friend is far away" — a song of Ary dos Santos to Amália Rodrigues, the public saw the world stop. There used to be tears on our side, of course, yes.
Gisela João was the first to act on the main stage. Credits: samuel matzig
And there is Ricardo Ribeiro, one who sings without fear of the potential of your voice, makes it rise above the small fishing boats moored nearby on the pier, stretches of the pianissimo to fortissimo because it gives to be another way. The applause is strong and the looks are embevecidos. Ricardo Ribeiro has sighs that seem to the wild beasts — so delicate as resistant. And then not afraid of no music in the world, of the accents of this country and of the ways of the gypsies that seems to give the songs.
Behind Ricardo Ribeiro, a symbol of ethnic that is reminiscent of the Arabic culture. Makes sense. The fado was born from the songs of the moors after the Christian Reconquest, with baby cot there costa do Castelo, Mouraria. The story is long and old, but there is only two centuries is that gained expression in the Portuguese culture. Of the taverns where he sang the "fado stray", where it was condemned by the Church, began to enter in aristocratic houses, and to earn a better fame, to be the channel for the expression of the people in times of instability.
Ricardo Ribeiro on the Stage Box. Credits: samuel matzig
In conversation with the Observer shortly before the concert, Ricardo Ribeiro argued that the irreverence of being a singer should be kept, but to be a singer and to be a singer of fado are different things. "The fado is a tree. And need of roots. It is an essence, there are things who should be only our". After you recalled a song of Beatriz da Conceição:
Sing for the young in Paris. It is always love, is always love. I’ve heard Madrid to sing. It is always love, is always love. Anyone who loves is always happy because having love is a good thing. But sing not to cry only love is here in Lisbon"
Already now: the concert of the last name to step on the Stage Box, Carminho, was completely dictated by the word "love". Sang about passion, about the hope that keeps madly after the close, of the importance of the courage to fight, of moments of weakness. When in silence, many times he remained eyes safe at the bottom of the enclosure and the arms beside the body. A given body to the bullets. When he sang he would shut his eyes, raised his voice with firmness, and it was pure theatre (only that it was not, there it is).
there Were chains hanging from the stage of Carminho. Credits: samuel matzig
the Moaning at the beginning of the verses with the power of who knows what to say and who is to say. And had gestures assertive in a conflict with your own mind. Carminho wanted to understand everything. Came to ask all to find a couple to say "Good morning, love", a song inspired by the Letter from a Hunchback to a Locksmith, written by Maria José (styles of Fernando Pessoa). He swore that with this joke already got two weddings: one in Badajoz and another in Freixo de Espada à Cinta. Carminho was love.
The first night of the Box Alfama, which will already in the fourth edition, I leave still a performance of Marina Mota, filled the expectations of those who was to see, that anyone who hoped the tradition of the magazine on top of a stage. There was fado to the window, and fado said. In large in the churches and on stage. And then there was all the rest that makes the night of Lisbon and the festival of Alfama. Almost at the end and even if they saw the plates by the lifting of restaurants, plus the peixinhos da horta, the octopus à Lagareiro and the broad beans. This Saturday it all happens again, with different names and a tribute to Beatriz da Conceição.
The Box Alfama continues this evening. Credits: samuel matzig
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