Portugal, Part 2: The Music of Lisbon & Porto
Hello Again,
I promised you that I'd be coming back quickly! As we were planning our trip to Portugal, one thing we did not really anticipate was catching live music. We were going to schedule a night of Fado (more on that in a bit), but unlike any other place we have visited, the music came at us from unexpected and various places.
On our first day out and about in Lisbon, we were near the main square when we saw these nattily dressed youngsters with their big band instruments. We arrived just in time for the performance and Marianella explained how this is a common group in South American also, a group of business school students who busk for projects or trips. Especially impressive was the gymnastics of the young guy with the tiny hand cymbals:
The only occurrence where we paid to see live music on the vacation was a fado dinner show on Saturday night. Fado is the traditional music of Portugal, their version of the blues that is sung in dimly lit clubs (as you will see in the attached video), typically with a soloist accompanied by one or two guitarists. The video I'm sharing is just instrumental; while the female soloists were stellar, it was the two guitarists that we found particularly affecting.
As we strolled back to our hotel after the fado show, the clear voice of a chanteuse beckoned to us in the crisp winter air. We came upon a crowd gathered at the back of the landmark Santa Justa elevator, scattered on the stairs listening to the impromptu showcase by this singer-songwriter. It was a wonderfully unexpected encore to cap our night.
If you ask me twenty years from now, what is the singular memory you have of your trip to Lisbon, I will very likely recall this event. Sunday afternoon, Marianella and I are winding our way through the historic Alfama neighborhood. We had just departed one church, when Marianella suggested we step into a smaller church, on the basis of its visual appeal. We happened to enter right at the beginning of the service for the Angolan community of Lisbon, and what was intended to be a brief stop turned into a nearly hour long visit where we found seats in the pews to listen to the joyful and wondrous singing of the congregation. Song after song was sung and when we departed there was still a considerable amount of the mass left. Our spirits couldn't help but soar after our fortuitous stop.
Porto did not provide nearly as much music, but it did provide one quite colorful pair of musicians, these gypsies who were busking on the sidewalk as the raindrops fell one afternoon. There wasn't much variation in their song, but we couldn't resist their fervor and dedication.
Our final free musical interlude occurred on our short train ride to Sintra, when these two accordion players provided the entertainment for a few brief moments. Similar to the gypsies, the tune was rather monotonous, but the charm of the players with their little Dixie cups taped to their accordions for the spare coins their audience would choose to spare won us over.
I promised you that I'd be coming back quickly! As we were planning our trip to Portugal, one thing we did not really anticipate was catching live music. We were going to schedule a night of Fado (more on that in a bit), but unlike any other place we have visited, the music came at us from unexpected and various places.
On our first day out and about in Lisbon, we were near the main square when we saw these nattily dressed youngsters with their big band instruments. We arrived just in time for the performance and Marianella explained how this is a common group in South American also, a group of business school students who busk for projects or trips. Especially impressive was the gymnastics of the young guy with the tiny hand cymbals:
The only occurrence where we paid to see live music on the vacation was a fado dinner show on Saturday night. Fado is the traditional music of Portugal, their version of the blues that is sung in dimly lit clubs (as you will see in the attached video), typically with a soloist accompanied by one or two guitarists. The video I'm sharing is just instrumental; while the female soloists were stellar, it was the two guitarists that we found particularly affecting.
As we strolled back to our hotel after the fado show, the clear voice of a chanteuse beckoned to us in the crisp winter air. We came upon a crowd gathered at the back of the landmark Santa Justa elevator, scattered on the stairs listening to the impromptu showcase by this singer-songwriter. It was a wonderfully unexpected encore to cap our night.
If you ask me twenty years from now, what is the singular memory you have of your trip to Lisbon, I will very likely recall this event. Sunday afternoon, Marianella and I are winding our way through the historic Alfama neighborhood. We had just departed one church, when Marianella suggested we step into a smaller church, on the basis of its visual appeal. We happened to enter right at the beginning of the service for the Angolan community of Lisbon, and what was intended to be a brief stop turned into a nearly hour long visit where we found seats in the pews to listen to the joyful and wondrous singing of the congregation. Song after song was sung and when we departed there was still a considerable amount of the mass left. Our spirits couldn't help but soar after our fortuitous stop.
Porto did not provide nearly as much music, but it did provide one quite colorful pair of musicians, these gypsies who were busking on the sidewalk as the raindrops fell one afternoon. There wasn't much variation in their song, but we couldn't resist their fervor and dedication.
Our final free musical interlude occurred on our short train ride to Sintra, when these two accordion players provided the entertainment for a few brief moments. Similar to the gypsies, the tune was rather monotonous, but the charm of the players with their little Dixie cups taped to their accordions for the spare coins their audience would choose to spare won us over.
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