Festival Santa Casa Alfama received more than 50 artists, including Camané, Sara Correia and Buba Espinho on the Santa Casa stage
The Santa Casa Alfama takes place in the oldest neighborhood in Lisbon, full of magnificent architecture and overflowing with culture. The festival featured ten stages throughout the Alfama streets, including churches such as S. Miguel and Santo Estêvão, and recreational societies such as Boa União, Grupo Sportivo Adicence and Magalhães de Lima, and is located at the Museu do Fado, and it reaches the riverfront with the main stage, Santa Casa Alfama, and the windows of Largo S. Miguel.
After an edition dedicated to Amália Rodrigues, in the diva’s centenary year, the 9th edition of Santa Casa Alfama, from September 24th to 25th, paid homage to another great name in Fado and Portuguese music: Carlos do Carmo. The year 2021 began with the sad news of the disappearance of someone whose voice is confused with the last fifty years of the country’s history.
The cruise terminal thus hosted a videomapping projection about Carlos do Carmo, and an exhibition about the fado singer, creator of hits such as “Canoas do Tejo”, “Os Putos”, “Trem Desmantelado”, “Lisboa, Menina e Moça” and “Fado Anarda”, among others. It should be noted that all the artists who participated in the festival included at least 1 theme by Carlos do Carmo in their repertoires.
On the first day, September 24, the main stage opened at 8:30 pm with the performance of Buba Espinho with the participation of Luís Trigacheiro.
Buba Espinho and Luís Trigacheiro are longtime friends, door-to-door neighbors, in the city where they were born, Beja. They have known each other for many years and have always followed each other’s paths. The Santa Casa Alfama concert not only celebrated the friendship of so many years, but also two intangible cultural heritages of humanity: Cante Alentejano and Fado, the genres that unite these two young talents. The alignment included themes such as “Roubei-te um Beijo” by Buba Espinho and “Meu Nome É Saudade” by Luís Trigacheiro.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”877″ gal_title=”Buba Espinho e Luís Trigacheiro Santa Casa Alfama – Dia 1 – Alfama ©Luís M. Serrão – iNeews”]
Then, at 9.45 pm, there was a concert by the artist Sara Correia, considered, at the same time, the present and the future of our Fado.
Owner of a ravishing voice, capable of making a rare synthesis between the more parochial side of Fado and its more cosmopolitan face, it is difficult to talk about the last years of our music without mentioning the name of the young fado singer. And the story between Sara Correia and Fado started very early, when she knocked on the door of a fado school in Chelas, when she was just 9 years old. From then on, she never stopped finding her own voice, in a growth process that would culminate in her first original album, the homonymous one published in 2018.
The public and critics were given over to themes such as “Quando o Fado Passa” or its version of “Fado Português”. And it only took two years for Sara Correia to return to records, this time with the record “Do Coração”. After listening, there is no doubt that everything that is sung there really came from the fado singer’s heart. “Antes que digas adeus” or “Dizer não” were some of the new themes that made up the September 24th lineup.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”878″ gal_title=”Sara Correia – Santa Casa Alfama – Dia 1 – Alfama ©Luís M. Serrão – iNeews”]
Closing the first day, on the main stage, we could hear a concert by one of the most renowned national artists, Camané.
Camané’s first contact with Fado occurred somewhat by chance when, while recovering from a childhood ailment, he explored his parents’ record collection and discovered the great names of Fado: Amália Rodrigues, Fernando Maurício, Lucília do Carmo, Maria Teresa de Noronha, Alfredo Marceneiro, Carlos do Carmo, among others. And the heritage of these great names stayed with you forever, forging their own artistic identity, always in dialogue with that tradition to which they would also contribute. From those first contacts with Fado to the victory in the event “Grande Noite do Fado”, in 1979, it was a small step. Following this participation, he recorded some works and made several public presentations. And that was the kick-off for a dazzling career, with numerous awards, performances all over the world, critical acknowledgment, respect from his peers and, most importantly, the love of the Portuguese public.
Records such as “Na Linha da Vida” (1998), “Esta Coisa da Alma” (2000) or “Sempre de Mim” (2008)have remained in the history of his career and the history of Portuguese popular music. But Camané does not rest in the shadow of his own success, as the most recent albums prove, examples of how to consolidate a language without ever losing enthusiasm for the new: “Infinito Presente” (2015), “Camané – Canta Marceneiro” (2017) or the most recent Aqui Está-se Sossegado” (2019), in collaboration with Mário Laginha.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”879″ gal_title=”Camané – Santa Casa Alfama – Dia 1 – Alfama ©Luís M. Serrão – iNeews”]
