As the festival drew closer and the real constraints on time and resources in Portugal became apparent, we had to re-think our re:play approach. We wanted to retain a direct connection with people attending our performances -- this is a hallmark of the more successful pieces José has produced. We settled on an extension of the "blind date" concept José had sprung on us last year (he had paired us with Portuguese musicians we met just prior to out performances). The result: "speed dates". We brought additional microphones with us, the intention being to involve anyone who would like in our improvisations.
This worked even better than we had anticipated. At two of our events, we were very fortunate in that we managed to involve two distinguished Portuguese poets. José Rodrigues dos Santos, a friend we had met last year, was in attendance at our Arraiolos performance. He read from his poem Between North and South exists. We managed to get two recordings (above), one from a brief run-through we did before dinner, and the other at the show that evening.
In Sines (pronounnced "sin-esh", athough the lexical connection to sine-waves was of course duly noted), we had an extraordinary stroke of good luck. José (Alberto-Ferreira) had allayed his Escrita na Pasaigem festival with the Festival Músicas do Mundo world music festival also in Sines. This was a very large event, guaranteeing us a young and enthusiastic crowd. Another concomitant event was "Meetings with Writers", featuring contemporary luminaries of Portuguese literature. Following his appearance, José invited star(!) novelist/poet valter hugo mãe. He agreed, and graced us with an unforgettable reading from his just-published novel a máquina de fazer espanhóis. All this and a truly delightful dinner with Valter prior to our show, too!
One of the most amazing collaborations was with the Grupo Coral Feminino of Viana do Alentejo. This was a choir of about 15-20 women in José's town, including an incredible blind fado singer (recording above). The Grupo Coral Feminino specializes in traditional songs from the Alentejo region. We felt doubly-lucky in that we had a chance to work with this wonderful group, plus it was done in the 'castelo' in José's home town. Dinner at his house with Diana and João was the best!
And the willingness of all to participate in our "speed dates" was
a total pleasure. These were some of the 'funnest' performances
I think we've done. Portugal is a delightful place -- I
really hope they can weather the economic storms without too
much pain. Many, many thanks again, José!
