Fado: From Mouraria to Alfama

I'm Prof. Julian Sato, and tonight we're walking the path that fado itself traveled: from Mouraria, where Maria Severa sang in taverns nearly two centuries ago, across the ridge into Alfama, where the music lives on tonight. Fado did not begin in concert halls. It grew in taverns and narrow streets, among people who had little and sang anyway. Along the way we pause high above the rooftops, step into rooms so small that every breath of the song reaches you, and hear the voices a whole city kept. The lanes we take tonight are the same ones the music once travelled. What you'll find is something the tourist trail misses: the geography of a tradition carried from one hill to another, one evening at a time. Wear comfortable shoes, because the lanes are steep and the old stones are smooth. We'll walk at an easy pace through medieval streets, and we end at a table, just as the music starts.