Misia in Geneva
It was a terrible rush to get in time to the Victoria Hall, in Geneva, in order to see Mísia and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande live. We unfortunately got a little late, and missed the first music (and we still heard “Garras dos Sentidos” from the outside, before entering the hall). Mísia was at the front of the stage (wearing a lovely blue dress, which, as usual, kept her simple and attractive), with the maestro, Bruno Fointaine, behind her. At the center of the orchestra, the famous portuguese guitar player, José Manuel Neto, paired with Carlos Manuel Proença, the not less famous classical guitar fado player. Mísia softly exposed her repertoire… “Fado Triste” (one of my favorites), “Sem Saber”, “Canção de Alcipe” (these two from the masterpiece “Canto”), and the famous amalian “Lágrima”. This first half of the concert was very “traditional” (if we may say that a fado-orchestra fusion is “traditional”), and revealed the more “traditional” vein of Mísia.
After the break, everything changed. The orchestra started by playing some tango by a composer whose name I unfortunately do not recall, and, then, the fabulous Astor Piazzolla’s masterpiece “Adios Nonino”, one of my favourite “new tango” compositions. This was only a prelude to the multi-cultural explosion which followed: a traditional japanese music, perfectly sung by her, some turkish tango, from the beginning of the century, the immortal “As time goes by”, in a fado-ish fashion, and even this simply beautiful composition from António Carlos Jobim, which i love (”Modinha”). But the climax of the performance came when Mísia sang Edith Piaf, accompanied by the maestro on the piano. The old lady next to me sang along with her… and i could notice they saw in her the energy of Piaf. Perfect! Both Mísia and Fontaine were at their best, and the audience loved. Two encores later (which brought back the turkish tango and “Sem Saber”), the concert had ended. Time had flown like the violin’s bow. Fantastic, magical, an hymn to both music and passion…