|
|
|
|
|
 In the year 1933, on November 21, on Rua do Capelão, in the heart of the Mouraria neighbourhood, Fernando da Silva Mauricio was born.
The owner of a genuine voice and stuck to his roots in Lisbon, Fernando Mauricio was also one of the great fado singers.
Fado is a typical urban song that began to define itself probably in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
Nobody can say for sure how this type of song came to be, but it definitely has roots and complicity with the people of Lisbon. It was and still continues to be sung in parts of the older city and in the typical neighbourhoods, it gives voice to feelings that arise in daily life. It is sung in Mouraria, in Alfama, in Bairro Alto, in the narrow streets and corners, in taverns and bars, where love and bohemia were linked.
During the first half of the twentieth century, it acquired great melodic wealth and rhythmic complexity, becoming more and more literary and artistic. The popular verses were replaced by developed verses we begin to hear the “decimas”, the “quintilhas”, the “sextilhas”, “alexandrinos” and “decassílabos”.
During the 30s and 40s, the cinema, theatre and radio projected this music to the general public, making it somehow more commercial. The figure of a fadista is born as an artist. This was the golden time of fado where musicians, singers left the narrow streets and hidden corners to shine on stage in the theatre, the lights of cinema, to be heard on radio or on records.
The Houses of Fado then arise and with them the launch of the professional fado artist. In order to sing in these houses, it was necessary to have a professional portfolio and a repertoire endorsed by the Commission of Censorship, as well as style and good looks. The houses also provided an atmosphere of conviviality and the emergence of songwriters, composers and singers.
The artists who sang fado wore black. It is in the silence of the night, with the mystery that surrounds it, that you should listen, with a "soul that knows how listen," this music; we talk about deep feelings of the Portuguese soul. It is this fado that makes guitars weep...
The fadista sings about suffering, the longing for the past, the longing for a lost love, tragedy, disgrace, destiny, pain, love, jealousy, night, shadows, the city, the miseries of life, criticizes the society...
Fernando Maurício was a fadista with a distinctive voice that made a mark in time.
He came from a century old family of the neighbourhood. At only eight years old began singing in a tavern on the same street where he lived, "O Chico da Severa," where the fadistas got together after their performances.
Fernando Maurício remembers with longing, precious moments of his childhood, where, in the early morning, he would sneak out of the house and “unlock the door and go to the tavern. They (the fadistas) went there to have breakfast and once in a while they would play a fadinho. I had a passion for the guitar. It was madness. I would stand on a wine barrel and begin to sing there ... like a parrot. "
This proving, very early, his knack for the world of entertainment, it was at the age of thirteen that, in 1947, he placed third in the “Joao Maria dos Anjos” competition, organized at Cafe Latino. At this time he was able to obtain a permit from the Shows Inspection, and thus could take his music to a professional level.
Later that year, on June 29 he participated in the Mouraria Child's March, in the role of the Count of Vimioso along side Clotilde Monteiro as Severa. At this time he also worked as a manufacturer of footwear.
Jose Miguel, a businessman, contracted him and he sang regularly for a period of three years, at weekends, at Café Latino, O Retiro dos Marialvas, Vera Cruz and the Casablanca at Parque Mayer. However, when he was 17 he decided to stop working, he started again in 1954, at “Cafe Luso”, in Bairro Alto. Here, he was already performing as a professional, as well as at “Adega Machado” and “O Faia”.
The 60s and 70s were a time for other houses of the Lisbon fado, such as Nau Catrineta, Kaverna, O Poeta, Taverna d'El Rey and again, Cafe Luso. These houses won new audiences with the performances of Fernando Maurício who would be called the King of Fado. In the 80s began to perform at Adega Mesquita.
Fernando Maurício sang fados on programs for the National station and participated in the first pilot programs on RTP, as well as the third to aired.
I preferred to sing at charity and benefit parties, throughout the country, not worrying much with a record career. Nonetheless, he did record. In addition to the fados he sang with Francisco Martin and his participation in compilations, there are also: De Corpo e Alma sou Fadista, 1984; Fernando Maurício, Tantos Fados deu-me a Vida, 1995, Fernando Maurício, Os 21 Fados do Rei, 1997; Fernando Maurício, col. O Melhor dos Melhores, 1997; Fernando Maurício, and Clássicos da Renascença, 2000. He also participated in numerous shows abroad, particularly in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, England, Canada and the United States.
He always stayed connected to the neighbourhood of Mouraria, the sports group, the neighbourhood parades, his childhood friends, football matches, Laranjinha, singing and the dances. He recalls and misses all of this: "There was a bakery on Rua do Capelão where I was born and at that time – in the 40s – everyone would sleep in the street. In the morning we would get up and wash our faces at the Chafariz do Guia (a fountain). I had many friends. We had a football team and we would play ball in our street. It was between Capelao and Guia. We would play barefoot. At this bakery they had baskets of warm bread, fresh out of the oven. From dawn, as the baker worked, we would lean against the door and we would take some of the bread. It was a very bad and difficult time. It was wartime. We were five siblings, then the two youngest were born. My mother was from Bonfim, in Porto. She would wash clothes to help out at home. "
It is with these memories and with one of his friends, poet Mario Raínho, that he wrote one of his favorite fados, " O irmão da Juventude."
He received several awards throughout his life, such as: Award of the Press (1969) and the Prestigious and Career Awards of the House of the Press (1985/1986). In May 2001, at the Coliseum, the President of the Republic awarded him with the Order of Merit.
He was averse to tributes but in 1989, Amália placed in the street where he was born, 2 stones, evocative of the emblematic voices of fado of this neighborhood: Maria Severa Onofriana and Fernando da Silva Mauricio. The City Council of Lisbon in 1994 marked their golden anniversaries at S. Luiz. In 2001, honoured him again at Pacos do Concelho when his personal and artistic biography was published, with the assistance of then EBAHL (now EGEAC) and the House of Fado and Portuguese Guitar.
He died on July 15, 2003 in Lisbon. The heart of the fadista that cries, sings and suffers stopped, but his fados continue to be heard in the neighbourhoods of Lisbon.
The City of Lisbon honoured him once again by naming a street in Lisbon after him, in the parish of Marvila. This time his paths will cross with Fernando Farinha and Armadinho, two other voices of fado that are near here, were honoured in the same way.
Sancha Teresa Pereira (adapted)
|
|
|
