Concert in Belgrade

 



I'm so happy to share with you my joy and enchantment over the Madredeus concert that I was attending last night here in Belgrade! As you can imagine, this kind of experience is beyond words and even more so because it's my first time to see and hear our beloved band live on stage!

So, what can I tell you - they were simply magnificent! Their repertoire was more or less the same as the one in Paris, except that they came back three times after the end of the "official" part of concert, having concluded their performance with "Haja o que Houver"... Teresa was so radiant in her blue-greyish silky gown and electric green scarf, appearing into the limelight and disappearing back to the shade, so modest, powerful, noble and simple! The concert hall was fully packed with people (some five thousand!), who were listening and absorbing every single sound with a pious worship, overjoyed and entranced... And the way she, Teresa, was smiling through her singing, maintaining her calmness and magic at the same time! Now, I wouldn't go into commenting new songs since I was also trapped in this dream and disbelief, but some of them (like "Capa Negra" and "O Labirinto") still echo in my soul with their charm and beauty...

And that was not all: after the concert, which was a miracle in itself, I was invited for a cocktail party organized in their honor by the Portuguese Embassy! Then I met with Teresa and Pedro & Co. (I still can't believe it!) and we had a lengthy chat about all sorts of things! I have had two exhibitions of my Portuguese photographs recently, so I decided to present them with my two favorite pictures as a humble tribute to all the joy and light my daily life was permeated with through their music for over a decade now! Teresa was genuinely surprised and touched and I was really moved with her simple and natural attitude - I know it may sound self-pretentious, but it felt as if we were going to the same school and have been childhood friends! Another picture was for the band and I handed it to Pedro, and then we talked about music, their activities, his favorite musicians, mistery of beauty etc. etc. It seemed so unreal, yet the most natural and simple thing to be with them, exchanging different views and feelings, enjoying their friendliness and warmth... Of course, I have mentioned our Forum and Mexican fans initiative and all efforts paid by Corvinus to keep us together and compact and, of course, they knew all about it and appreciated this association of ours. The party went on for about two hours and then we parted with a strong wish to welcome them back soon!

I send you all my very best wishes,
take care,

Rasa

from a mail sent to the "Madredeus Forum" mailing list


It was really wonderful ! ! ! After all these years of their playing...

The programme was the same as in Paris.

There was really a lot of people. Many of them were standing beside seats. Madredeus came without Teresa and they began to play "O Mar" and then Teresa came.
From the dark. Easily. Like a dream...

Não é nehum poema
o que vos vou dizer...

And it was like in a dream! At the first moment I couldn't understand the movement of her hands and what they (hands) were saying to us because I used to listen, not to watch.
But as time goes on I realize that expression. Giving directly from the heart ! Then without a word they started "Vem", which is one of those songs which are waking my soul and touching so deeply... After that Teresa did something that made us more close to her. She said "good evening" in serbian language, with no mistake, and she was so cute !
As concert goes on I felt that everybody were relaxing and enjoying.
Oxala is so wonderful and I liked so much the new sound that Teresa gives to that song !
The concert was so refreshing in spite of the middle age of Madredeus. But there is a different sound. I missed Gomes and Ribeiro when they played songs from "O Espirito Da Paz " and " Ainda".

It is really a pity, as Teresa said after curtain call, that we haven't met before . I hope so they will come next year again ,now, when they have a piece from this
region, piece of this culture with them !

Sinisa

from a mail sent to the "Madredeus Forum" mailing list


Belgrade - "It is a pity we haven't met before" says Teresa Salgueiro, accepting the little gifts that the audience give her. She is moved, and the audience too. For the beautiful night and for all the things that have been denied to them in these years.

The world tour of Madredeus has started from the Sava Center of Belgrade and it will arrive in Italy the 5° of November (a concert in Rome in the first days of July has to be confirmed). More than two hours of music, twentyone songs, half of them from the new album which will appear in the shops not before the end of this year, probably in the 2001, to let space on the market to Antologia, the compilation of successes just published.

It has been a rigorous and calm concert, as in the tradition of the portuguese group, with the Salgueiro who has reached unbelievable levels of vocal control and perfection of the executions. Two classical guitars, an acoustic bass and a sintethizer to create an atmosphere which resemble much more the one of a "strange chamber group" (as Pedro Ayres Magalhães defined it) than of an ensemble of modern fado. Three millions of albums sold in the world in more than ten years and a film, "Lisbon Story", with Wim Wenders, which transformed Ainda in a cult-album for the italians (50 concerts in Italy during the year '97), has transformed Madredeus in an astonishing concert-machine, with sold out theaters, auditoriums and stadiums from Brazil to Mexico, from Belgium to France.

The serbian audience particularly appreciated A Andorinha da Primavera, applauded since the first note, the superb edition of Alfama and, in the end, the oneiric O Paraíso. Among the new songs, I would remember Catedral and the entrancing crescendo of Capa Negra which closes the first part of the show. Pedro Ayres, "mind" of the group, confirm that the relation with Wim Wenders is still perfect. "We met a week ago in Lisboa for the premiere of Million Dollar Hotel. I asked him, why don't we make another film together? This time the theme could be a portuguese group at the discovery of an african instrument, the kora. He seemed enthusiast". On July 30° the group will start his attack to the difficult english market, with a concert in the prestigious Barbican Center of London."

Giuseppe Videtti



   

 

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