Uma noite de Fado

In the organizer's words:

Fado can also be sung on Good Friday.
Nevertheless, we will not only sing sad Portuguese songs, but also bring the quietest day of the year to life together, with wine and petiscos.

Tony Riga, Fadista & Matthias Baumgardt, Guitar
Fado - Tony Riga (tony-riga.de)

Fado means destiny. And fado are those songs that sing of longing, sadness and the difficult lives of people in Portugal. And yet fado has always been criticized. During the Salazar dictatorship, overly critical songs were suppressed and banned. After the Carnation Revolution, fado had a reputation for romanticizing a cruel past. And yet, with fado, the Portuguese had long since created a protected space in which saudade (we would say weltschmerz or melancholy) is welcome. Saudade does not call for encouragement, pity or help, but is felt together in a combative or modest depth, without questions. This shared experience is achieved with the well-known melodies of fado.

The richly varied songs poetically combine some of the literature of great Portuguese poets or speak from the heart in simple words. Fado has thus become the home of a popular mentality characterized by wanderlust, poverty and inner richness. The fact that there are also many cheerful pieces is sometimes overlooked in this country, as is the fact that saudade lies within each of us and possesses a sad beauty that we can awaken and share in Uma noite de Fado.

Tony Riga is the musical director of the Frankfurt Complaints Choir, a lecturer in voice training at the Frankfurt Adult Education Center and a singer and radio presenter. His great love for fado began a few years ago. Since then, he has been exploring the sonorous language and music of Portugal, which opens up a musical world of its own for him and his listeners. In dialog with the audience, the fadista translates the lyrics, talks about their meaning and about the background and history of fado.

With over 40 years of professional experience and well over 2000 performances, Matthias Baumgardt is one of the most sought-after musicians in the Rhine-Main region. The rock and blues guitarist shows himself from a special side. By turning to fado, he shows his great sensitivity, which also gives great depth and dimension with soft tones and subtle empathy. His encounter with fado leaves musical traces that reveal an interesting affinity with blues and even country music.