‘Amália in America — Beyond Fado,’ under the musical direction of maestro Jan Wierzba, is set to take place at Carnegie Hall in New York, showcasing the same lineup as last year’s performance at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon.
The show recreates Amália Rodrigues’ (1920-1999) performances in the United States, featuring fados along with traditional Portuguese songs, marches, and pieces from the ‘Great American Songbook.’
“Amália plays a crucial role in the consecration of fado in Portuguese culture and its universality. She is a true symbol of our traditional music, and this is a rightful tribute to the legacy she left us,” musicologist Rui Vieira Nery stated last year.
Amália began performing in the United States in 1952 at the nightclub La Vie en Rose in New York, sharing the stage with artists like Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich. Her American performances continued at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and on television.
In 1966, she was a soloist in symphonic concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestras of New York and Los Angeles, presenting traditional Portuguese songs and fados, and received significant acclaim, according to Vieira Nery.
Last year, the chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Organismo de Produção Artística (Opart), which oversees OSP, described this as “an ambitious project, bringing together various reference institutions, built upon one of the main names of 20th-century Portuguese culture.”
“Amália Rodrigues’ remarkable legacy is reinforced and renewed in our time through the recreation of orchestral arrangements, allowing OSP, also a cultural identity ambassador, to establish itself as an interlocutor in this convergence between fado, classical music, and Broadway classics,” stated Conceição Amaral, president of Opart.
Regarding the New York performance, the organization states, “more than a tribute to the fado diva, it is an act of internationalizing Portuguese culture, with Amália Rodrigues as its foremost ambassador.”
