Fado

Fado, a musical form found in nineteenth-century Lisbon, plunges into the most and less expressible sentiments of us Portuguese.

It has become a fatality, so we express and define ourselves through love, the lack of love, the loss of a love and missing. The Fado submits everything and everyone, it deals with the way we deal with all this, resulting in a perennial portrait.

In Fado, the repertoires sung summon the Portuguese, evoke the feelings, in the universal background, and also for that reason became Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2011. Thus, foreign visitors seek to know us through Fado and in it also they reveal and thrill .

Vocal interpretation is particularly valued. Depending on the voice, feminine or masculine, along with body language and clothing, the story and emotions contained in each fate can touch more or less.

Instrumentally, it is indispensable the acoustic presence of the Portuguese Guitar and the viola, with the fadista in the center. At this level, the double bass has become a habitual presence in Café Luso, also of special visual effect.

From the centenary crossing of cultures that secularly converged in Lisbon, port city, during the nineteenth century takes this melodic and rhythmic consistency this new musical genre: Fado.

After a long period of incubation, lived in one of the oldest districts, Mouraria-Castelo, in fact sometimes promiscuous and dangerous of the streets and taverns, in the nocturnal , there is a growing number of admirers that the Fado was conquering among the several social strata.

From this comes the appearance, from the 30’s of the twentieth century, of the houses of fado.

The house of fado becomes, by definition, a decent enclosure to listen to Fado and enjoy a meal. Fado and Food, always given arm.

The resident cast is fundamentally characterized by being intergenerational.

– Fado singers: Elsa Laboreiro (artistic director), Yola Dinis, Catarina Rosa, Filipe Acácio and Cristiano de Sousa (+ weekly guests)

– Instrumentalists: António Neto (viola), António Cardoso (Portuguese guitar) and Jorge Carreiro (double bass).

The Café Luso has 90 years of existence, has become an exponent.