Season 6 Fado: Music of Portugal

Fado is a powerful and poignant musical expression of the Portuguese soul, often associated with the hardships of everyday life and characterized by melancholy, expressive vocal performances with a strong emphasis on emotional, poetic storytelling.

The unique sound of Fado is highlighted by the guitarra portuguesa, or Portuguese guitar - a pear-shaped cittern with 12 wire strings - and is usually accompanied by a wire-strung acoustic guitar. In many ways, its’ free-form style is reminiscent of early Blues and Jazz.

Intrigued by what we learned from our research, we sought out a specific Fado performance while visiting the city of Porto. This turned out to be a serendipitous experience. We were the only two audience members in what ended up being a private concert. This allowed us to dig deeper into the history and soul of this music deeply rooted in Portuguese tradition. The session featured the outstanding talents of noted Fado vocalist, Ana Margarida, and her two musicians, Artur on Portuguese guitar, and Antonio on classical acoustic guitar.

With apologies in advance for the less-than-perfect audio, we couldn’t pass up the chance to record this unexpected, once-in-a- lifetime session with a cell phone since we were without our professional audio equipment.

By sharing our experience, we hope to give you an insight into this extraordinary musical genre through our conversation recorded in the majestic Grand Salon of Porto City Hall.