RIGA - Anyone who enjoyed Mariza's concert in Riga last year will surely want to catch the upcoming show by Portuguese fado singer Misia at the Latvian National Opera on Feb. 12.
Misia will be performing songs from her new album "Canto," an original and ambitious project that was inspired by the Portuguese composer Carlos Paredes. "Canto" is strikingly beautiful and its authentic sound is greatly enriched by the use of a classical string quintet, whose stirring arrangements superbly enrich the album's wistful sound.
But most striking of all is Misia's haunting voice. Songs of longing and despair are a national tradition in Portugal, and fado perfectly captures a sense of timeless sadness. The word comes from the Latin fatum, meaning fate, destiny or doom.
Fado emerged from the brothels and taverns of Lisbon about 200 years ago, and was first sung by lonely sailors. Today the songs are mostly performed in restaurants and special fado clubs, although in recent years fado has reached an international audience thanks to the success of singers like Mariza and Misia. Female fado singers, called fadistas, usually perform while draped in black shawls and standing very still, although they have been known to sway a hip and tap a foot if moved to do so.
Born in Porto, to a Portuguese father and a Catalonian mother, Misia chose her stage name in honor of the famous Misia Sert, muse of Mallarme and friend of Proust and Picasso. Descended from a line of artists 's her grandmother was a music-hall dancer and her mother was a ballerina 's Misia naturally veered toward music.
But if Misia respects the orthodoxy of fado, she also knows how to renew it, enriching the tradition with new literary references. She has gracefully composed verses from poets of the past, while also having songs especially written for her by contemporary artists. Yet, as any fado artist will tell you, it's about emotion, not song. And sorrow is this emotion's home.
"I think it is the ocean," Misia recently said in an interview, after being asked about the music's melancholy nature. "We are a little country with a big, big ocean in front of us. (Fado) is our way to talk and sing about our feelings." And for fado, this is an ocean that appears half empty, rather than half full.
