Celeste Rodrigues honored in November at Fado do Fado in Lisbon
Fado singer Celeste Rodrigues, who died last August, is recalled in November at the Fado Festival, which marks the 7th anniversary of the classification of fado as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity, at the Café Luso in Lisbon.
On 26 November, in the ambit of the tribute to the creator of the ‘Algae Legend’, which will include, among others, his grandson, filmmaker Diogo Varela Silva, and great-grandson, guitarist Gaspar Varela, who came to accompany him , among the artists and “lovers of fado”, the exhibition “Fado, Memórias e Revelações” (“Fado, Memórias e Revelações”), composed by “unpublished photographs of eminent artists of fado”, by the photographer Rogério Paulo Gonçalves, is inaugurated in Luso Café.
The exhibition will be shown at Luso Café, a space adjoining the fado house, which occupies the former stables and barn of an old palace of the seventeenth century. In parallel, there are two exhibitions at Adega Machado, also in Bairro Alto, and at the Timpanas fado house in Alcântara, with photographs by Celeste Rodrigues and other fadistas, namely those who regularly perform in these spaces. The three shows close on the same day, December 26.
“Celeste Rodrigues was honoured, with the unveiling of a headstone in our space, in May 2013, when she celebrated her 90th birthday, and always marked her presence at the Fado Festival, (…), namely, last year, 90th anniversary of Café Luso (…) known as ‘the Cathedral of Fado’, “he told.
Joao Pedro Ferreira Borges, from Fado & Food, the owner of this fado house, told that “for several years, when fado was not in vogue, as it is today, Café Luso and other a walk in the desert, having known how to keep the fado culture alive and sought for fado not to stagnate. ”
In 2015, Café Luso held a photography exhibition in honour of Álvaro da Silva Resende (1935-2005), a native of Porto, who was a photographer at Café Luso from 1970 until his death, and “became known in the fado medium as’ the baron ‘. ”
The fado singer Celeste Rodrigues died last August 1, at age 95, in Lisbon.
Born in Fundão, sister of Amália Rodrigues, she began her career in 1945, when she accepted the invitation of businessman José Miguel (1908-1972) to sing at Café Casablanca in Lisbon. His repertoire includes, among other themes, ‘The Legend of Algae’, ‘Fado das Queixas’, ‘Might Be a Lie’, ‘Winter Night’, ‘Heard Saying You Forgot Me’, and ‘Looks Bad’, between others.
Last May, Celeste Rodrigues sang one of her last performances on the stage of the Tivoli Theater in Lisbon.
Throughout his career he was part of the cast of several fado houses, such as Café Latino, Marialvas, Adega Mesquita, Tipoia and Adega Machado and Parreirinha de Alfama and Café Luso, where he performed twice a week until the close of his death, having recorded with names like Jorge Fernando, Diogo Rocha, Fábia Rebordão and Tim, of the Xutos & Pontapés.
In 2005, the director Ricardo Pais, then director of the National Theater São João, in Porto, invited the fado singer to participate in the show ‘Branco Branco e Saudade’, alongside Argentina Santos, Alcindo de Carvalho (1932-2010) and Ricardo Ribeiro, with which he made a European tour.
