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International Cuisine Conference on Traditional Asian Diet
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Tuesday , July 10, 2007
Fado Fad
A clutch of Goans brought to the Capital the haunting folk music of
Portuguese shores
Richa Gupta
AS Goan musician Franz Schubert Cotta strummed his 12-stringed
Portuguese guitar, a melancholic, almost haunting, voice filled the
auditorium of the India International Centre. You might not understand
Portuguese, you might not even know it was fado, the folk music that
originated in and around Lisbon in the early 19th century, but as the
mournful melodies of Sonia Shirsat rose and fell, you were transported
to the choppy Atlantic where homesick, lovesick sailors wandered and
pined.
Thirty-something Shirsat and her group Fado Goa were in the Capital to
celebrate the occasion of Portugal becoming the president of the
European Union. And the audience, which included a smattering of
diplomats, enjoyed the fado day.
"A fado usually revolves around the sea and sailors. It is like a
ballad in which the lovers pine for each other," said Shirsat about
the traditional Portuguese music. And it was evident the moment she
began crooning "Queen of fado" Amalia Rodrigues' Longe daqui, a song
of love and longing.
The evening also saw the performance of two other singers, 63-year-old
Miguel Cotta and his daughter Chantale, who have been singing together
as a family for nearly 15 years in Goa's plush hotels.
The ensemble sang Lisbon- and Coimbra-style fado that get their names
from the two cities of Portugal. "The Coimbra sounds like the opera,
while the Lisbon style is livelier," said Miguel.
But what drew these people to the sounds of the foreign fado? "It is
equivalent to the American blues and Indian ghazals. It is very poetic
and is rich in lyrics," said Miguel, the singer dressed in Wendell
Rodricks and who has been wearing on his sleeve the melancholic music
of the Portuguese colonisers.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=245051
--
DEV BOREM KORUM.
Gabe Menezes.
London, England
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