“Sodade”: Christmas concerts in Lisbon include tribute to Cesária Évora at the Coliseu | Song
In December, Lisbon’s Coliseu hosts a tribute to Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora, as part of the Christmas program in Lisbon, which includes shows by Rão Kyao, Teresa Salgueiro and Gospel Collective, some with a solidary aspect.
The Christmas program in Lisbon, an initiative of the Equipment Management and Cultural Animation Company (EGEAC) of the Lisbon City Council, has an “eclectic” program this year: from the traditional Portuguese songbook to Cape Verdean mornas, in a unique tribute to Cesária Évora ”.
“The program remains free, but this year there will be, in some of the concerts, found food in favor of União Audiovisual”, reads a statement released by EGEAC this Monday.
The program begins on December 4th, at Nossa Senhora da Graça Church, with the Gospel Collective, which will “revisit some of the best known black spirituals, remembering the diaspora and the hope kept in the faith during the slavery period”, in a performance in which “there will also be no shortage of well-known Christmas hymns”.
On December 10th, the Coliseu dos Recreios will stage Sodade – Homage to Cesária Évora, “Which marks two dates of historical symbolism: the birth of Cesária Évora (she would have been 80 years old on the 27th of August) and the one of her departure, ten years ago, on the 17th of December 2011”. The concert will bring together “musicians from several countries and different singers, who bring to memory the Diva dos Pés Descalços, in a repertoire that took Cape Verde and Lusophony to the four corners of the world and left in the collective memory, which can be summed up in one word :’sodade‘”.
On December 11, different generations of the Lisbon Cantat Chamber Choir and orchestra, conducted by Cesário Costa, gather at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to interpret traditional Portuguese Christmas songs, written by Lopes-Graça, Sampayo Ribeiro and Eurico Carrapatoso, but also “orchestral works” by Italian Baroque composers, including Corelli, Manfredini and Torelli.
The performance of the Ensemble Dan Luz Al Sol is scheduled for December 17 at the Museu de Lisboa – Palácio Pimenta, consisting of four solo voices and various percussion and plucked string instruments, which will interpret “popular Christmas repertoires in the Iberian Peninsula and in Portugal its colonies, in the 16th and 17th centuries”.
On the 18th, the auditorium of the Radha Krishna Temple, of the Hindu Community of Portugal, will stage a Homage to Gandhi, by musician Rão Kyao, who edited the album in May Gandhi – A Portuguese Honors Gandhi, inspired by the ideas of the pacifist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), who fought for the independence of India.
This year’s Christmas in Lisbon program closes at Cinema São Jorge, on December 19, with a show by singer Teresa Salgueiro. According to EGEAC, it will be “a different Christmas concert by one of the most emblematic voices of Portuguese music”.
It will be in the performances in honor of Cesária Évora and Teresa Salgueiro that entry is free “by donating non-perishable food and hygiene products, in favor of União Audiovisual”.
The fact that the cultural sector was “very impacted by the economic crisis” led EGEAC to decide to “revert some of the concerts in favor of União Audiovisual, an association that was created spontaneously during the pandemic, which fed, and still feeds, many artists and families”, said the president of EGEAC, Joana Gomes Cardoso, to Lusa. More information about the Christmas program in Lisbon can be found connected.