‘Women of the South’ in the Iberian Theater to say ‘enough’ to dictatorships
Nine songs from five South American activists fill the ‘Mujeres do Sul’ show that Adriana Queiroz conceived and that, on November 27th, takes to the stage of the Teatro Ibérico in Lisbon with Lara Li and Luanda Cozetti.
“A spectacle that is not political, but poetic, and intends to say ‘enough’ to the dictatorships that threaten to reintroduce themselves in the world,” said Adriana Queiroz, stressing that it is “a repertoire that does not include songs of intervention”.
Topics interpreted by Elis Regina, Maria Bethania, Chavela Vargas, Violeta Parra and Mercedes Sosa fill the show, with which Adriana Queiroz intends to “draw everyone’s attention to what is happening in South America.”
“Because we have to say enough and that screaming is enough to increase the dictatorships in South America,” stressed the former ballet dancer Gulbenkian who, after ending his career in dance, has recorded two albums.
‘Ay Carmela’, ‘Los hermanos’, ‘Humble People’, ‘Cross of Oblivion’, ‘Maria Tepotzeca’, ‘Under the Water’, ‘Like Our Parents’, ‘The Drunken and the Balancing Actress’ ‘Alfonsina e el mar’, ‘Balderrama’, ‘La maza’, ‘Canción com todos’, ‘Gracias a la vida’, ‘Todo cambia’, ‘Cartomante’ and ‘Colotida Velha colotida’ are the 19 themes fill the show in which South America will be present on stage without Adriana Queiroz wanting to reveal more details.
The artist “had [this show] in her head for three years” and, after “some mishaps”, her assembly takes place at a “right” moment in relation to what is happening in Brazil, Adriana Queiroz said.
“Southern women came to me at a time when I wondered and told me that I was a woman from the south when a certain differentiation began to take place between northern and southern Europe in the European Union, indicated.
“And I tell myself that I am a woman from the south, to try to understand the activism of the women of the south, but in the last century,” he continued. “And so I went looking for this activism in music, in the singers, and I started in South America because of passion for that song,” he emphasized.
Despite having traveled to other continents, Adriana Queiroz stayed in South America, not only “by choice of heart”, but also because it was in this continent that women showed a strong capacity to fight, surpassing everything and leading to his voice added.
“As I’m not an intervention singer, I did not want to sing, I went to choose [songs].” To reduce the vast repertoire, I first chose five great activists: Elis Regina, Maria Bethânia, Chavela Vargas, Violeta Parra and Mercedes Sosa ” .
“Then, to narrow the repertoire even more, I chose several songs that were not of intervention and that changed the mentality of the people,” he said. “Songs that have passed censorship and become a banner of struggle and resistance and that have changed mentalities,” he said.
In the show, the three performers will not “imitate” the singers they are going to perform, but rather “try to maximize the poetic message of the songs they sang.”
“It’s a message that remains current, but so current that it’s very scary,” said Adriana Queiroz.
Adriana Queiroz even says that civilization “can not go back”, so it is necessary “to join voices so that it does not go back on achieved achievements”.
This show, which will be performed in Bragança on March 8, will close in Lisbon the tour planned for 2019, so that the three performers enter the studio to record “Mulheres do Sul” – a way of saying no to the dictatorships that are wanting to implant themselves in the world, said the singer.
Regarding the choice of Lara Li and Luanda Cozetti, Adriana Queiroz said she already worked with the second. Of Lara Li, says that he “appreciates”, because “sings and says very well”.
“Three women who do not leave their personality aside and who know how to resist,” he said.
Questioned about the fact that there is no Portuguese theme in the repertoire of the show, Adriana Queiroz explained that the only one she met was “Somos libres”, interpreted by Ermelinda Duarte, but is later than April 25, 1974.
Hence you have opted for others, of resistance. “All southern themes and southern women,” he concluded.
