Recently, UNESCO named Fado to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The significance of the Fado to Portuguese
culture cannot be denied and it continues to be a popular genre of music. It
has been described as encompassing the soul of the country and its lyrics tend
toward describing a melancholy or a longing.
I’ve only been to a Casa
dos Fados once, as an older child/young teenager--I can’t even remember how
old I was. There is a photo from that evening, a black and white shot of me
with several people. It appears to be a
typical photo of a fun evening out. To
look back on the photo years later highlights the many stories that occurred in the subsequent
years. Do two of the women, best friends, know that they will consecutively become the wife to the same man? Does one of the women suspect that her partner is
unfaithful and will soon leave her for a younger woman? What of the illnesses and
early deaths of a couple of the others? Of course, it’s impossible to have known all of this from a simple black and white photo taken so many years ago. Lives as complicated
and mournful as a fado itself, you might say.
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