A Look at the Portuguese World

 

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Yvette Vieira

Yvette Vieira

Sunday, 30 December 2012 18:01

The music in the pearl of the atlantic

Funchal Music Fest live 2011 is an ambitious project that aims to put in the map the island of Madeira, its own capital and musicians from Madeira in the national and international summer festival circuit. The organization endorses the creation of a complex theme park located in Santa Catarina with about 36 000m2, which will have not only the main stage for the invited artists, but also a recreational area with a mechanical bull and a place for gladiators and still an area catering for approximately 6200 people expected in this compound every day of music sung in Portuguese. The countdown has begun ...

How did you come with the idea of organizing a music festival, a version of rock in Rio on an island?
Duarte Costa: There was no summer music festival. There are many events out there, but not the true concept of pop-rock festival. People make vacation on purpose for such initiatives, celebrate with friends and family music and the fact of being in an environment that also has fun activities. The concerts which already exists with great expression in mainland I wanted to do it here, given our size. It is a universe of 270,000 people, in August is a little more, because of immigrants. But, in any form is always limited. Santa Catarina park was chosen not only because it lies at the heart of the city, but because it is an ex-libris of Funchal. It is a magnificent natural setting with views over the sea, is an amphitheater ideal for this type of initiative, which also aims to draw attention to the city and catapult it to the national summer festival circuit. Encourage people who like music to come into Madeira.

But for them to come over, are there any special offers with some airlines for the event?
DC: Yes, there is such an agreement, because it involves a high cost in terms of air travel and accommodation. Funchal Music Fest created a package that includes three day ticket, accommodation and airfare, which allow the feasibility of such initiatives.


I noticed that the poster is packed with big names in Portuguese music, that's the purpose?
DC: Yes, Indeed. Portugal has quality at national level and people recognize that. Obviously we have to have an international band to serve as an anchor and so we can be heard and discussed at an international level. It's another way for the festival to be known outside and move to that level the city been recognized abroad. The choice fell primarily on the quality and alignment of the bands with established artists. Nothing better than a festival with music in our language.


One of the mottos of Funchal Music Fest is sustainability. To what extent you have this environmental aspect?
DC: We have various facets of sustainability. There is the environmental and financial. The first event deploit was in the 19th of March that was the day of the official start of the Funchal Music Fest live 2011.The festival is a movement, that is, not limited to these three day concert. It has a vocation and ability to move, call people's attention to certain areas that deserve greater expressiveness and which demands from the public a greater awareness. It is the specific case of the Ecological Park of Funchal (EPF), he is the great heart of the city as a citizen and I do not know about the activities that take place there and what it represents to Funchal in terms of tourism and social. EPF is truly unique for its biodiversity but also for its sports and leisure activities that anyone can enjoy this natural area.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:59

The portuguese music show by tec

 

The experimental theater group of the People's House of Camacha was founded in 1989 with the purpose to promote culture thru an art form less recognized by the public. After 27 years of existence already have a broad curriculum, which never sees to grow up. They also are responsible for the unique theater festival in Madeira. Actively engaged in Camacha's art week, their musical show is the highlight of this event, such is the massive participation of the public. A performance that moves about 40 members of the group comprising the four briefs of social criticism, with music and dance, as the main responsibility of the TEC explained.

Why a Portuguese musical show?
Basilicia Fernandes: The Portuguese musical show usually conveys a great sense of humor. And we are facing a public that has mostly the idea that the theater is to laugh, that just makes humor, even though most people know that we are a group that put into stage all kind of theater plays. This show is to animate the spirits of the public; it must be alive and conveys also our criticism.

Sara Branco: Is a form of social criticism of what is happening here in town, the island or on the main land. The theater is the ultimate stage. Who can make critical for free and without consequences? That's us. Therefore, we take these experiences, the strongest themes of the year; this year is the crisis and talk of it. There is no other alternative.

BF: In the past we have made the seven wonders of Camacha. What we did use? What we thought was more run down, grumble, strange and sad, these were the themes chosen. It was very well accepted by the public.

From what I gartered the show is massive, that people can barely move.
BF: Yes, it is a fact. People come to see the theater. And in those four or five days that the festival Camacha's works of art, having a night of rock, folk, jazz and popular singers, in fact no one can fill the square as we do, one amateur theater group. Last year, two thousand people were counted.
SB: People are curious to know which one will be the target of our criticism. We criticize the local population, in a good way to play without hurting susceptibilities. People end up knowing who we're talking about and laugh. Because the Portuguese music show does that in general. It's an entire show, with dance, songs and skits put up like a vaudeville theater. Although the percentage of briefs about the national reality is very small compared to everything else. Since the lyrics from the texts, everything is related to us.

You can slightly raise the veil of what will be on the show?
José Ferreira: Well, we cannot do it too, because people are paying attention. It's almost like a state secret. Essentially are issues related to Camacha and Madeira. Changes from show to show, because deep down we are amateurs. We have tried to address what people have tried to be genuine and adapt. You get the gist of what we have and never try to imitate a professional show, as those put on stage in Lisbon. They are different situations.

How did you come up with the idea of his king of show?
BF: In 1989 we were the first to be organized in partnership with Inatel, it must be emphasized that our existence owes much to this institution, the first cycle with amateur theater groups of Madeira. To carry out this project together we created loose sketches and at the time the Inatel's coordinator, Carlos Pereira, he gave the idea that this collection of humorous work that we should give it the name of the Camachas Theater show. It just stuck. That same year we presented a play outdoors, but did not work much, because there was not a suitable apparatus at the time. Later, we tried again to bring to the scene our true musical show.
SB: We go over the years creating isolated texts. After that, we gathered the entire group and ideas arise until pops up the issue. Put it all together so that there is an entire show.
BF: The show is designed that way because in the past were dead spaces and to avoid this we set up a time to imitate advertising. The aim is to soon find someone on the scene so that there is a follow-up. We have a furious pace to prevent the public nuisance. People tell us that after an hour and a half out there their feet are numb, because unfortunately we do not have a capable auditorium.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:58

With body and soul

Jorge Neto draped his vocation for the art of acting unexpectedly. A discovery that allowed him to begin an acting career with over ten years, some of which are devoted to a memorable character that brought him fame and recognition of the Portuguese, as the rat in the famous saga of bullets and cookies.

How woes your first experience as an actor? It was in the bullets and cookies?
Jorge Neto: The beginning of all was the proposal of a group of friends to come together to make a short movie. The initial idea was to make a film about a group around a table, in their natural environment. We wanted to do something funny. The concept was intended to criticize the world around us, in that context. My character comes alive in that moment during rehearsal once a week has been growing thru what was written and constructed. He was gaining its own characteristics, different from others, as is natural and how a rodent is and how we looked at the "rats" that abound in our daily lives. Then I tried to add the shape of this animal to be frantic and changed the voice.


What did you add more in the second movie?
JN: What make this character more credible are the situations that were created in this film. The production had that concern. You put the rat on a street is different than in a scene interacting with other characters and the extras. There is an evolution, as was natural. It was impossible to repeat what I did in the first film


So what was changed?
JN: The sentences that the public liked best, which were used again by the character and we complement this with new speech reactions. I was more an actor in this second feature film, did a more cinematic approach of the rat, because at that time was studying filming. The way to frame me in the take, the camera position and everything around me, all that was studied. Although the character is the same.


In the third, the rat is more physical?
JN: The idea is that the saga ends here, and although it is influenced by the other two films, before there was a lot of improvisation. In this third part, we cannot escape much from the script of the day to finish shooting in a positive way. From the point of view of the action itself, I will have more scenes, now everything is timed. It is done as scheduled and there is not much room for change.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:55

The discouver azguime

 

Miguel Azguime is an unavoidable name in erudite music in our country, or invention music as he likes to call it. He created Miso Music Portugal in order to be an open window to the outside of the young musicians and new Portuguese national composers. It is also one of the initiators of the center for research and information of Portuguese music to the global world.

Let's go back in time and talk about the twenty-five anniversary of the Miso ensemble are there any differences in musical terms?
Miguel Azguime: It's a tough question, because over the now twenty seven years we celebrated this year, we grow, we are older, we changed the settings and practices and our interests have changed. To make this comparison between the Portugal in 1985 and now we are inevitably conditioned by the years that passed through the group.


But was an evolution? Or not?
MA: I think there are two perspectives, from the year 1985 to roughly 1993, with the Miso ensemble we travel all over the country, were also in Madeira and Porto Santo, with concerts taking place in seething universe interested in the arts and culture. It was a very different world that had no internet; it was only in universities and was not yet part of our everyday life. The news circulated by the newspapers and we had an enormous presence in the press. I even have a pile of newspaper clippings and a third of these articles were from that time, shows the attention that the media gave us. We were frequently on television, there was even room for other alternative music, and I say art, in a larger sense and not just entertainment. It was in a socio cultural point o view a different Portugal, a very different country that today and that period had some qualities, but also defects. The Portugal of 1985 compared to the country in recent years, the late nineties beginning of the XXI century, is a nation that has changed dramatically with many positive things regarding erudite music, or as I prefer to call invention. Training was increase a 2000% we are living the ​​gold age in terms of composition of Portuguese music, superior to that which we consider to be even better, the age of polyphony in the seventeenth century. We have great performers, sond'ar-te electric ensemble, for example, has an equal or superior performance as good as the rest of the world. There is a qualification of extraordinary musicians who make music with great quality.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:56

A cry of independence

The Portuguese Association of Archaeological Research (APIA) was created by a group of young archaeologists in order to develop research projects in this area. A cry of Ipiranga that also aims to make room for the scientific discussion of certain taboos that still exist in our country, as is the case of archaeological finds of the Azores before the Portuguese colonization.

What’s APIA?
Sergio Pereira: The APIA was established twelve years ago, was a cry of revolt of a group of young archaeologists who did not have room to work in the scientific community. The funds for research that existed there were always assigned to the same. There was no room for the young, it was biased. Then there was a group of people who got together and created an association with the aim of providing this support in the field of archaeological research and in parallel establish partnerships with companies to raise funds, to channel this money to develop research projects, a role that should be assumed by the state. In fact, there were scholarships, through the so-called national plan of archaeological work that were very rarely given to young people and the few that were approved, no funds were allocated. Go to camp without any financial support is almost impossible, in the excavations there are always expenses.

So how do you make the project sustainable?
SP: We had to create what we called in the business of archeology. We have created a group of people aimed at rescue and accompaniments archaeological imposed by law and carry out environmental impact studies for private partners. The profit obtained from these studies instead of being divided between the partners as in any society, it is channeled to monetarily reward the people who worked in the projects and the surplus is applied in research grants. It is the sustainable way to perform scientific work. We offer masters and doctoral scholarships, which are subsequently published in journals and international congresses of the specialty because it allows us to disseminate the results, which is immediately to the global scientific community. In Portugal, this disclosure happens only after three or four years.

One project that has developed by APIA is in the Serra da Estrela, where is your work in that area?
SP: This project appeared in the Serra da Estrela with Nuno Ribeiro through his doctoral thesis, which identifies prehistoric rock art between the river and Alva and Seia. This study began with a series of investigations that pointed to the existence, according to locals, dozens of archaeological sites. There currently are 700 identified areas with prehistoric art. This entire survey and identification was only possible through environmental impact studies helped provide data for this research and all the money was invested in exploration, hire people from other areas, such as geologists and anthropologists to get a more comprehensive draft of all subjects, or disciplines.

The center of the interpretation of prehistoric rock art, which was created four years ago, was the result of this work. It is a kind of basis for any survey that is developed across that area. It is an ambulatory and office for all projects developed in that zone. All research procedures are there, i.e. 700 sites inventoried and studied of prehistoric rock art and also the remaining, funerary monuments and ancient Roman mines or of the Iron Age. At this point, are about 1,100 sites, properly cataloged.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:54

A non missing actor

Joao Pires is known by the public as character Bino, one of the members of the quartet of crazy "bullets and cookies." It considers himself as an amateur actor, but is a geographer by profession. He lives abroad, but came on sabbatical to be part of the final third saga.


What were the challenges you have encountered for your character in bullet?
Joao Pires: Well, it was a few years.
Seven to be précised.
JP: No, that was the second. The first was in 2000. I did amateur theater with Jorge Neto, the character rat on movie. We participated in two groups that were common and were also neighbors since childhood. Valongo is kind of small and so we easily met Duarte and Ishmael. Well, Duarte was part of an association that I did not attended frequently, but would go from time to time. And when the film was written, it was designed for these four characters. They, Jorge and Ismael remembered me and mold the film taking into account that I would embody it.

They gave you some ideas about this character for the first film?
JP: The first time we spoke on the subject, was in the beginning, we had no idea it would be a movie, had the concept of ​​a short film, but were going to do something. And then we join the four, Ismael always as mentor of the project, we were setting things up and decided to proceed. At the first meeting we did for the first film, was the first rehearsals for one of the scene, where I entered as Bino, we did it on a stairs access to a theater. It was a first test. Try to rise, to embody a character who is a person completely out of reality, either because he’s crazy or an addict, the movie never explains very well why. In this first approach, I was trying to create a very weird walk and this first meeting we try to visualize something that would be recorded later on. Then we grow up and were always with a perspective of solidarity among all. There was no money. Recorded when we could. Sometimes we could not shoot on the weekend, we did it after and it was not a priority at the time, but gradually gain ground in our lives.

When you feel that your character was recognized by the public, that there were many people who had already seen it? It was in Fantasporto?
JP: In Fantasporto had an impact. I think the period of my life where I felt it more was in the university, I noticed many people looking at me and I was observed. And I thought, but what is going on here? And still am I not used to. Nor am I very aware of the impact it had. Now of course we have more experience and a better concept, but at the time it was, how do people know who I am?

 

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:53

The dreamy conductor

Rui Massena leads the fate of the Classical Orchestra of Madeira for a decade. One challenge that still appeals him, but that is just one of the corners of his talent. As one of the programmers of Guimarães Cultural Capital of 2012, the conductor wants to show the Portuguese to the world. The best in terms of musical creation.

What's the balance that you make of this decade in the Madeira classical orchestra?
Rui Massena: The balance can be heard. It is an energy orchestra with a taste for music, still enthusiastic about the direction this orchestra in particular. There is still much to do, because we need to grow, but the balance is a strong growth.


You said in an interview that is intended to grow as a musical centrality, we have reached this level?
RM: No, no. It is necessary that people have decision-making power to understand that tourism is also culture and the classical orchestra can be a national and international reference for people who visit the island in the future to know that here is a season of luxury, of excellence. Centrality in the sense that music and using a metaphor, there is a great car and little money for gasoline, so we have to invest in the orchestra and then take dividends in terms of tourism.


You have performed with Jose Carreras and Da Weasel what are the differences between these two musical styles?
RM: The music of the great classical composers requires a very strict technical perfection. Play with a group of hip-hop requires a very keen enthusiasm. Not that the classic does not need, but you must understand other rhythmic phenomena. You have to understand how music is made and assume a musical identity and emotional. Overall needs a lot of technical perfection to exist. Therefore, the difference is set that way.


How you perceive the music scene in Portugal, now that the ministry of culture has become a secretary of state, was a demotion and how do you think that's going to affect?
RM: I was sad. We lost one thing who was granted and that was the ministry of culture. It was an institution that was representative after all. When speaking about governments they do not talk about culture. A country that lives in Europe has not good economic measure itself around that fact and we are clearly losing. If we measure in terms of culture in relation to other countries, we can rub shoulders with any of them. Too bad we do not have ministry, but I believe that this current prime minister is a person related to the arts, will realize that we need to be protected. It is an investment in training, ethics and morals of the people connected to this area and their contact with others is a human investment. We must not lose sight of this, now that we do not have a ministry.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:51

With northean accent

Joao Seabra is a man of the North. Since Braga for the rest of the country, he tells jokes about the idiosyncrasies of the Portuguese people with his unmistakable accent. Embarked on a remarkable career that started professionally in 1993 and makes him laugh just to recall it.

How is the life of a comedian in Portugal?
Joao Seabra: I cannot complain, it is not something from another world, have gone well, in Portugal there are many things to do humor and it is well here, the Portuguese like to laugh and want to laugh, there is relation between public and humor.


You are very associated with the North, the content of the jokes, the accent has always been deliberate?
JS: Yeah, when I always said in the opening of my act, I came from Braga! Marks the place I came from and sometimes even exaggerated the accent of the North. But that is something I'm proud, despite Portugal being tiny, has a great diversity, many accents, many ways to be and I am very proud to represent a particular area and I do not mind when people associate me with Braga, or the North.


This does not restrict the style?
JS: No, no way. So much so that I was invited to act in Madeira and do shows all over the country. From the North to the Algarve. It is a matter of having an accent, but does not restrict.


Is there a taboo subject in your jokes?
JS: I do not like talking about religion and issues related to pedophilia.


But it's a personal choice or you think you will face a negative public reaction?
JS: I think they are too delicate to be thoroughly addressed, because falls into the joke of bad taste, and I do not appreciate silly. What I like to do as a comedian is to make the public laugh and not to shock people. It is my personal vision, I do not like black humor. I feel that should be enjoyable for people to listen and not go into shock.


And the favorite subjects?
JS: It's the day-to-day lives. Of small gestures. Relations between man and woman. It is the everyday.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:49

the heads in the air

They're a cultural association based in Valongo which instigates multidisciplinary events throughout the County. Promote a taste for theater with courses dedicated to the young. Enact bold performances in order to raised appreciation of the artwork and the nearness of the audience and while apparently walking with their head on the moon, these artists have their feet firmly on the ground.

How did the heads on the air and feet in the feet on ground appeared?
Hugo Sousa: We have a higher education common to all, so we decided to invest in the creation of a theater group different than here in Valongo. Here, there is only a professional theater company and several amateur groups. We decided to create a professional company as well, and providing training ourselves, it was a big gap in the County and promotes itself with another type of shows than those there were here. They were basically copying other artistic projects. This was on 13 February 2009 and by now we are moving out of Valongo.


This premiere took place at the Teatro Latino, in Porto, why?
HS: The choice fell on this theater because we had been there with other shows, embedded in other companies. It was one of the playhouses that we liked in the city of Porto. The Rivoli was also equate, due to its central location, near downtown, but never got any response, after several attempts to contact in this regard. The Latin theater was the space chosen, because we knew Oscar Branco, he gave us the room, we rented the space immediately. We, as a group less well known in the city were interested in this playhouse because it was on the center of Porto, has the conditions necessary for the play. There was also an important condition, which was great it was easy to access. We would have free space at our disposal, but not in the center of Porto. The city's public is a little lazy, I think they just move to the center to see a show there and feel safe, when it involves a trip to the periphery is already very complicated. We are a company of Ermesinde, located 12 kilometers from Porto and the city inhabitants do not came to see us there. However, when we did the show at the Latin Theater, many people living in Ermesinde saw the play "The Imaginary Invalid."


The Imaginary Invalid was a success in terms of audience?
HS: Yes, we had full house, except in two days, which reached half the house, and it was the "fault" of football matches. It was great to have so many people, we did not expect much, but hoped some public, but never full houses. The remaining performances sold out, we had problems with the box office because of reservations. Facebook had a lot of people complaining, complaining they could not see the play. We are therefore thinking of doing the replacement of the show, not in the coming months, but ahead, because many people have complained about not having tickets.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 17:48

The owner of quinas the dog

Violante Saramago Matos had a life dedicated to science, but she also is devoted to writing in a more mature phase of her life. In this interview we talk about books, her father, Jose Saramago and the Foundation of the same name.

Being the daughter of José Saramago somehow weighed when you decided to edit this book?

Violante Saramago Matos: No, no. It took awhile to get over some hurdles, but it did not weighed, or no longer contributes or not. Let's just say the book I edited last year, whether the children's book will continue this year and the result was not influenced in any way by my father.

And after editing the book, did you felt judged for been the daughter of ...?

VSM: No, for one simple reason, I will not say that it is natural for a person who arrives at the bookstore and see Saramago name, read it and is curious, but not because it has been suggested. Let's see if it's a bookstore and see the name White Castle, I can possibly think of Camilo, but only by association. But that has influenced in some way the act of writing, or after it is published I felt nothing.

You wrote a children's book a difficult type of literature, because children are discerning readers, did you took it into consideration?

VSM: No, I chose this type of literature because I love dogs and this book is the human vision life of my dog. This started in telling stories to my nieces of Quinas and they were asking for: Oh, aunt write a book. The three walked around me for a while and I decided to indulge them and wrote a book. I did not thought of editing this was more a joke for them, but then began to realize that it could be funny, could be interesting and structured a series of books. Basically, I like children very much and allied two things. I never told my children a story to fall asleep at night. Never, ever had any imagination. And you cannot say that this book is the fruit of the imagination, this is how he, Quinas, will solve, how we will react to the world, humanized as is evident, at least interpreted by me. There is a pedagogical intention. Of course, a book for children is very difficult to write for them, because they absorb everything in the book. For a small child a book is almost a God, what is written is what is valid. It's a big responsibility. With an adult, and I'm used to it, they get cranky and say, it's not like that. With children, they absorbs and believes what is written there is true, so in my view, we have to be careful, you cannot write a children's book gilding a pill of any teachings. A children's book should be a story for fun, of course that meets certain parameters. First, you must have a language she understands, but cannot have errors. An adult will excuse a sloppy sentence , but is our responsibility to give a child something that is wrong. After all you are going to contribute, forward in time of course, if the child likes reading or not. Or have a bad reaction to the book and doesn't want to read anymore. We are helping to transform a reader in the future. And then she really has to have fun. Who writes in the end does not unfold in a second personality and I like dogs for some reason I have to translate that in the book. If I think that having things is important, not to destroy them is important, this book is on the level of the dog, he chews figurines just for fun, these things are at the center of it, translated into simple language accessible for children aged five and six years old. The next edition of the dog Quinas is in the Netherlands, will have new experiences, will run on the snow, was what he did, eating snow, he is a special dog.

When you began to write it refers to your father's experience in the sense of difficulty in writing certain passages, the anguish of the writer?

VSM: Yes, I felt it all. Although written completely different and not comparable. But I felt there were passages that do not go well, that did not express what I wanted, given the public it was intended. And so, I retained a few things. It was still two or three months, there was reading, reorganization and rewriting there either way. There are items of redundancies, removing a few phrases that repeat it as the result of language, action, collection, a significant number of them that is necessary to remove, feel responsibility. I will not say is like my father, is another distinct.

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