Dona Rosa
Dona Rosa embodies the true longing of the soul, rooted in a tradition whose most relevant and famous symbol is Fado. Her voice is the ideal instrument for the expression of this longing. And as she sings, she enables us to see and feel her world, which though outwardly blind, opens vast internal emotional vistas. “The eyes of the body are unable to see. The real vision comes from the eyes of the spirit. It is important to return to that first vision, the vision of the soul“...
The famous blind activist Helen Keller said that the biggest problem that blind people face, is the lack of vision of their friends who see . In a world, where senses are dormant, what is the real meaning of seeing?
Blind people live in a luminous world, even if they can’t see. They live very near the source of the inner life where light is always present. If what is essential is invisible, will it be possible to share and make audible some of the atmosphere and colors of the rainbow that are part of the inner landscape of someone who lost the capability of seeing?
This is the main purpose of this project in which through original lyrics and songs, poems that evoke the possibility of redirecting our attention to the soul dimension, we want to remember a space within us that remains almost inhabited.
Dona Rosa with her generosity and unique way of being gave voice to words, songs and memories of her life. She faced the challenges of this new step in her career with courage and the consequence of her commitment is shown in the particular and different sound atmosphere of this CD called: "Sou Luz".
Drawings done by blind children that brought another color to the cover of this CD, a poem created by Aliu Baio, a sixteen year old pupil of the Helen Keller Institute of Lisbon, new songs that had the support of "devoted" musicians , contributed for making this challenge of Dona Rosa a visible reality.
It was a track on Charlie Gilletts World 2004 compilation that first drew many peoples attention to the English speaking world to Dona Rosa. Rosa was born in 1957 in Oporto /Portugal in a very poor family living in one room. Meningitis raged through that room when Rosa was still an infant and since the age of 4 years she is blind. Her luck began to change when Austrian music producer André Heller discovered here and invited Rosa for an Austrian TV show produced in Marrakech, Morocco. In the year 2000 she appeared with a showcase at Womex worldmusic fair in Berlin and since that time she developed a repertoire of traditional protuguese music sung in the fado style. Starting from singing in Lisbon streets she ended up with a new quartet performing on stages from Taipei, Moscow to Los Angeles since the past years and as well to Womad stages in Spain and England.
Dona Rosa embodies the true longing of the soul for authenticity, rooted in a tradition where Fado is its most relevant and famous symbol. Her voice becomes the ideal instrument for the expression of this longing, and as she sings we feel that is indeed possible to stretch ourselves beyond the boundaries of our narrow, logical minds. We are easily moved, recognizing those places within ourselves that are moved and nurtured by her soulful voice. Dona Rosa, in her simple and genuine way, creates the mood so that the "Green Emerald" of our hearts can truly be seen.
ALMA LIVRE releases our souls from the daily routine, allowing a subtle tuning to take place, and is an invitation to welcome new soundscapes for us to enjoy in songs such as "Cavalos" (wild horses thirsty for sun), "Mulher da Beira" (instrumental), "Canta, canta ?amigo canta" (sing my friend sing, alone you are nothing, together we have the world in our hands), "Nos Trilhos" (instrumental), and "Livre", the song that best portrays the true and non-conventional spirit of Dona Rosa, reminding us that there is no axe capable of cutting off the roots of free thinking.
In ALMA LIVRE, Dona Rosa faced new challenges as the creative process unfolded. This was a musical journey where the rhythm of the language made the difference. In the studio, Dona Rosa displayed all her musical talents; in almost all the songs she followed the beat of the metronome instead of her usual triangle and sang and inspired the group of musicians who joined her for this project, from the more traditional of them such as Carlos Gonçalves and Amália Rodrigues, Portugal’s most famous guitar player, to the new musical languages of Ciro Bertini, Sofia Borges, Raul Abreu, Celina Piedade, Tiago Oliveira, Ricardo Parreira ,Luis Cunha and José Afonso.
About DONA ROSA:
Even today fairy tales still happen - tales that read as if they were straight out of the Arabian Nights. This is the miraculous story of the blind Fado singer DONA ROSA of Lisbon:
In 1999 a Portuguese production company was asked to find a Fado singer for an Austrian Television Company production to be recorded in Marrakesh. The programme..s musical director, the well-known Viennese artist and impresario Andr.. Heller, had a particular blind street singer in mind, a woman he had heard many years ago, whose voice had moved him deeply and haunted his memory ever since. The search proved to require quite some detective work but finally she was found - DONA ROSA.
Who is DONA ROSA?
She was born on February 1, 1957 in poverty. At the age of four she fell ill with a severe case of meningitis to which she lost her eyesight. Her family, whose only means of livelihood was begging, could not easily accept the child..s handicap but managed to provide a basic education for her. She learned to read and write and carry out simple manual tasks ...and she became acquainted with the traditional songs of Portugal.
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