Amália: Fado in the World and the World in Fado

by Rui Vieira Nery

 

After a strenuous and meticulous research carried out for the last ten to fifteen years, we may now confirm beyond the shadow of a doubt that, historically speaking, Fado is a recent feature of Portuguese culture. Fado attracted notice for the very first time in Lisbon from the early 1830’s onwards. But even by then its presence was confined almost exclusively to the poor quarters neighbouring the city waterfront. From the 1860’s until the end of the century, Fado extends its social and geographic emplacing circle by entering the world of Musical Theatre in Lisbon’s downtown as musical attraction somewhat “picturesque”. It was performed as theatrical sketches that attempted to portray city characters archetypes among whom the elusive one of the “fadista” so well depicted and caricatured by such authors as Camilo, Eça and Fialho. On the other hand, and fairly concurrently, piano musical sheets of Fado were released either in leaflets or in small compilations sometimes relatively large. Hence, Fado opened its way to the salon repertoire spurred by the upper crust young ladies of the Regeneration society for whom, as it is well known, the outward hints of sophistication – which had to be diligently absorbed – were the Paris’ imported archetypes of metropolitan sociability. And above all, they had to speak rather fluent French, even if elementary, and develop piano skills at a beginners’ level as a minimum. Once again, Eça is the author of this accurate middle-class portrait revealing a constant anxiety caused by its transient and culturally hybrid status caught in-between the elite cosmopolite archetypes, which it covets, and urban popular roots that it tries to conceal. One can see as a wide-ranging example, Luisa’s character, in Primo Basílio, on whose piano, in the living room, are set the piano scores of airs of Donizetti’s Lucia and Bellini’s La Sonnambula and an orchestration of the Fado do Vimioso, all displayed without an apparent hierarchy.

The gradual spreading of the genre outside Lisbon’s boundaries begins at an early stage in its history and by two parallel ways. From one standpoint, by means of the centripetal phenomenon common to the arrangement of the national elites cultural habitus located at the Coimbra University whereto boys of all the country regions converged, the majority proportionally coming, as expected, from the capital. They took along this poignant song associated to the young bohemia rituals which a city daily marked by its student population, could not help to share too with its temporary residents. On the other hand, Fado is viewed by the rising working-class movement, from the 1870’s onwards, as the ideal messenger to endorse syndicate, socialist and republican radical ideas within the working classes all over the country. At the turn of the century, as it has recently been proved by anthropologist Paulo Lima, real agitation and propaganda were already on the rise causing famed Fado singers to go to other employment hiring centres in the interior country such as the industrial sector in the Lisbon periphery, the Covilhã woollen factories or the waging farming areas in Alentejo.

This national-wide expansion is reinforced by the introduction of recording industry in Portugal, in 1902, followed shortly by Radio in the end of the twenties. Although remaining mainly based in Lisbon where the twenties and thirties witness the establishment of the first stable performance venues for the genre – the so-called “houses of Fado” -, Fado progressively becomes a national phenomenon obviously dominating the metropolitan popular music circuit all over the country.

However, the particular Portuguese idiosyncrasy innate to Fado holds back its international circulation possibilities. Firstly, on the account of the language itself and then because of its yet very close tie with the imagery and values of Lisbon’s daily popular routine; and finally because of the lacking of a significant number of Portuguese emigrant communities in other European countries capable of standing as local connecting links to the genre and become active agents of its diffusion within the societies in which they have settled in. To these limitations one should add a phenomenon of obvious elitist prejudice conveyed by Portuguese authorities which had the proper means to support a potential international diffusion. They usually hesitate to carry out that task owing to a still vivid memory of the genre semi marginal origins and to the dubious identity nature that most Portuguese intellectual elites of the time, right or left wing, still confer to that song born a few decades ago in Lisbon taverns and seaport brothels.

As a result, until the end of World War II the sole territories serving Fado’s expansion outside the Portuguese metropolis were the African colonies – the population of which, of European birth, grows thanks to the colonial growth policies of the First Republic – and Brazil where, for decades, the Portuguese community is known to have a relevant critic crowd and where, throughout the nineteenth century, the tradition of live performances preserved its strong ties with the artistic scene in Portugal. The colonies are visited by the so-called “embassies of Fado”, Fado singers and guitar players gathered only for the tours, some times with famous names of the Fado milieu such as  Fado singers Madalena de Melo and Berta Cardoso, the Portuguese guitar player Armandinho or the guitar player Martinho da Assunção whose departures and arrivals on the African course ships are carefully reported by specialized newspapers such as A Guitarra de Portugal or A Canção do Sul, for instance. In turn, Brazil welcomes frequent Portuguese Operetta and Variety companies that perform in the main cities some of the greatest hits of Lisbon’s theatres. Many included Fado numbers which were enthusiastically applauded by the Brazilian public (like, for instance, the celebrated 1936 Brazilian tour by a theatre company led by Vasco Santana and Mirita Casimiro that also presented the Fado singer Ercília Costa). Furthermore, it is quite meaningful that, in the early twentieth century the Brazilian recording industry began to comprise a dignificant number of Fado recordings. Strangely enough, this phenomenon remains mostly to be studied though editor José Moças has been performing a pioneer research for the past few years.

The first event of all historically referenced regarded as a landmark of Fado international promotion outside the Luso-Afro-Brazilian circuit seems to have been the choice of Ercília Costa, mentioned previously, to join the Portuguese representation of the New York International Fair in 1939 invited by the Propaganda National Secretary of António Ferro. She was one of the greatest Fado singers of the twenties up to the forties, known as the “Saint of Fado” for her solemn posture and the expressive intensity of her interpretations. But the initiative did not seem to have any kind of repercussion in the international representation policy carried out by the Estado Novo, nor did it bring about a special interest for Fado in the New Yorker show business scene, excepting some curiosity for this “exotic” genre shown, so it seems, by some American stars such Bing Crosby or Cary Grant.

Consequently, it is only in 1943 that a new phase begins in what concerns the promotion of Fado outside the national border as Pedro Teotónio Pereira, Ambassador of Portugal in Madrid, takes the initiative of inviting Amália Rodrigues to sing for Spanish guests in his Embassy. Amália breaks new ground and deeply impressed the Spanish elite. Furthermore, she meets Conchita Piquer, Imperio Argentina, Carmen Amaya, Niña de los Peines and other Flamenco stars who were to influence her in such a way that she decides to try out the traditional Spanish songs making the first move towards what was to become her positively international repertoire during the following decades.

In 1944, when Amália goes to Brazil for the first time, she achieves an amazing success at the Copacabana Casino. The following year she returns for a triumphant stay, from May up to February on the subsequent year. She goes along with a top-level company of paramount names of Lisbon’s Musical Theatre with a special reference to composer Frederico Valério. Valério had already begun to write for her voice some of the fado-songs which would become the pillars of her repertoire: fado Maria da Cruz, Ai Mouraria, Fado do Ciúme. The variety show Boa Nova and operetta A Rosa Cantadeira, both at Apolo do Rio Theatre, sell out and Amália is hailed as top world star. From then on, Brazil was to become, throughout the following decades, a recurrent travel stop for the artist.

But the Brazilian success could have easily been confined to the Luso-Atlantic tradition described earlier. The ultimate test to confirm the change must be stood at the great capitals of the western world and Paris seems to be the right target. She debuts in one of the smartest clubs of the French capital, Chez Carrère, but also improvised a song at Maxim’s for Rita Hayworth and Aga Khan. And right afterwards, in the same year, the doors of the London Ritz open for her. Both initiatives were officially promoted by António Ferro without immediate public visibility, but they give Amália her first influential contacts for the international entertainment milieu. She wraps up 1949 with a triumphant Brazilian tour where she was to record her first discs for Continental label, an equally fundamental step for her promotion beyond frontiers. In 1950 she achieves great success in performances in the context of the Marshall Plan in Berlin, Rome, Trieste, Dublin, Bern and Paris.

Her debut at the New Yorker club La Vie en Rose in 1952 singled out a quality leap in her career. The Time Magazine wrote, “the crowd was driven to ecstasy” by Amália and the New Yorker considers her “the most ravishing foreign singer to have ever performed in our night clubs for many years. […] we are in the presence of something very special.” She would go back to New York the following year as special guest of the widest audience American TV show, the Eddie Fisher Show, broadcasted for millions of fascinated spectators. In 1956 she debuts at Paris’ Olympia as a mere first part attraction, but in 1957, she was to return to the same hall as solo artist. The Olympia would guest her performances in 1959 and 1960 and, also in Paris, she was to sing at Bobino (1960) and La Tête de l’Art (1962), to which she would triumphantly return too in the following years.

From then on it is only possible to point out great landmarks in the course of her career: the New York Lincoln Center in 1966; the New York Philharmonic conducted by André Kostelanetz, to which she returned two years later; the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, again with Kostelanetz in 1966; the overwhelming success at the Cannes MIDEM, the major festival of the world recording industry, in 1967; Romania in 1968 and the USSR in 1969 despite all the diplomatic obstacles met by a Portuguese artist to cross over the Iron Curtain; Osaka Fair in 1970 and Tokyo Sankei Hall; Milan Teatro Lirico and London Palladium in 1971; Ivon Curi show at the Canecão in Rio de Janeiro in 1972. After April 25, 1974, a sudden political ostracism – entirely unjustified – hampers her live contact with the Portuguese public for a few years. Once again, it will be abroad – and even until the end of her career in the eighties – that Amália will be received with unfailing affection and permanent consecration.

It is an absolute new phenomenon, without any comparable precedents as we have seen in the history of Fado. But one should acknowledge that we are dealing mostly with the genious of Amália rather than with the victory of Fado by itself. The after war, the fifties and sixties are, in fact, a time for the international metropolitan public to grow its curiosity towards a kind of music excluded from the precepts of show business and the recording industry, which was essentially ruled by the Anglo-American metropolitan popular music. But the secret and introverted ritual of Lisbon’s Fado, just as it became known in the twentieth century was, from a cultural point of view, excessively hermetic and unable of drawing that potential market attention. It was somewhat necessary to reinvent the genre in order to make it exportable from its original environment. That was precisely the fundamental contribution of Amália Rodrigues.

First of all, it is important to redefine the scenic dimension itself of the genre. Fado has to step out from the intimate halls and the acoustic resonance of the “typical houses” to be relocated on a large venue stage. It has to be prepared to implications such as the change of vocal projection technique and to work with indispensable amplification. The simple three or four fado series in intimate ambiences have to yield to twelve to twenty songs programmes on stage with a rhythmic cadenza that guarantees internal diversification, growing dynamics and emotional tension climaxes. The singer’s physical presence by itself has to be thought over in order to favour a charisma and a dramatic strength appealing enough to chain up the audience’s attention even without using other musical props. Amália instinctively, and without any hesitation, controls all these aspects: she usually wears black, yet her sophisticated long skirts, shawls and jewels reveal an almost operatic spectacularity. She learns how to use the microphone and stands no comparison making it echo her whispers and cries in scales controlled at all times by a solid vocal technique even wen, in the end of her life, her voice begins to betray her; most of all, she knows better than anyone how to choose her repertoire in such a way as to guarantee the perfect communication with the public of the five continents.

It is in this field that one must recognise her most intelligent choices. Whenever abroad she doesn’t sing too many traditional strophic Fados perhaps because the art of styling them turns out to be too much idiosyncratic for a non-speaking Portuguese audience. She would occasionally sing a Fado Menor or a Menor do Porto and later on with the outstanding exceptions of Fado Vitória and Fado Pedro Rodrigues, she now focus preferentially her performances on Povo Que Lavas no Rio by Pedro Homem de Melo and Primavera by David Mourão-Ferreira and on the beautiful fado-songs by Frederico Valério with their universal melodious language, in which the taste of the Fado singer is felt on the intrinsic vernacular dramatic singings rather than on the pure tradition of free vocal improvisation of the traditional Mourarias and Corridos. Neither would she sing abroad too many sophisticated Fados written by Alain Oulman based on the greatest scholar Portuguese poets namely Bernardim, Camões, Homem de Melo, Mourão-Ferreira, Alexandre O’Neil, Manuel Alegre or Ary dos Santos. From Gaivota, Com que Voz or Maria Lisboa by Oulman, she returns soon after, in the same program, to other strophic Fados older than Povo Que Lavas no Rio by Joaquim Campos or Que Estranha Forma de Vida, by Alfredo Marceneiro. But she also likes to sing lighter Fados by Alberto Janes, and in particular Vou Dar de Beber à Dor. And she frequently adds the Lisbon “marchas” and folk traditional songs like “malhões”, “viras” or ditties of villages popular festivities. In Amália, Fado extends only to embrace all Portuguese lyricism forms and it is by means of that comprehensive sense that it spreads all over the world.

But more important than that broadening of Portuguese song, is the fact that Amália, since the very beginning of her career, made her point to sing in other languages and exploit different songbooks. Firstly, she sings Spanish songs like flamencos, peteneras or sevillanas, and soon, after she adds Latin-American boleros and corridos. All this, by the way, before the significant patriotic protest of the perpetual Aljubarrota’s baker-women, who regarded this Iberian eclecticism as a dangerous opening to an alleged Castilian Imperialism. Then, time for the Brazilian Samba and Baião that she learnt in loco with Luís Gonzaga or Lupicínio Rodrigues. The following decades would bring French songs, including some composed by Charles Aznavour exclusively for her voice like Ay, Mourir Pour Toi and the Italian ones, with special emphasis to Una Canzone Per Te, from Sergio Endrigo’s repertoire which will faithfully accompany her during the last tours. From all those collections of songs Amália sings the ones that “taste like Fado” in her own words, that is to say, songs that in other languages suggest to her the same woeful chant, the same dramatic tension, the same emotional surrendering. And embodied by her voice, all these songs actually become so many other Fados that even though born somewhere else than at Mouraria, they end up by revealing the essential universal of the Portuguese identity itself. To all this I have once called, very soon after Amália’s death, “a Fado beyond Fado” and this is the expression I still find more suitable to comprehend the whole of her repertoire apparently so eclectic in yet so intrinsically coherent.

Amália certainly did, like nobody before, bring Fado to the World; but perhaps that was only possible because, considering the impressive level she had achieved, she knew how to bring the World to Fado. And that is certainly the foremost lesson to retain out of her legacy for the renewed paths already explored and to be explored by Fado, marked since its origins by journeys, fascination for innovation, difference, for the “pulsing of desires” of the fascination mingling of races.