Cabelo branco e saudade / Fados
Ricardo Pais

Do other kinds of Fado lurk behind its most successful, big-business incarnation? Fado is a musical form that strictly depends on its performers, and how many of them have spent lean years singing in old Fado Houses, only intermittently stepping into a Stage to reveal the rarity of their styles, some of which are already all but unidentifiable? Where did Camané or Ricardo Ribeiro (to mention two absolute exceptions to Fado’s current commercial incarnation) find their strange techniques, and their incorruptible attitude and distinctiveness? Until a few years ago, Argentina Santos was living discreetly as a restaurant owner, Celeste Rodrigues lived in the shadow of sporadic appearances, and Alcindo de Carvalho was a well-kept secret. Now that the tributes of the system have started coming to them, the time has come for us to gather together and reveal some of these figures, in the ‘glorious ripeness of their wisdom’. Only those who did not see Alcindo de Carvalho in Fados (CCB/1994), Argentina Santos in Raízes Rurais. Paixões Urbanas (Porto, Paris, Lisbon and Viseu /1998 – 99), or missed Regressos (TNSJ / 2004), with Camané and Rabih Abou-Khalil,** can still afford to ignore these near-unique ways and means of singing Lisbon. Under a curious combination of sound and light, we bring to the stage these white hairs, which are not due to age, but rather to life’s neglect, and we do them the justice of sharing that stage with the vigorous 24 years of the most lyrical upholder of Fado tradition. (R.P., Porto, January 2005)

* White hair means longing. From the Alfredo Marceneiro Fado with the same title.
** All these shows were directed by Ricardo Pais.