Misia’s Emotional Intensity Makes for Fascinating Fado

At the conclusion of her mesmerizing program of fado songs Thursday atUCLA’s Royce Hall, Portuguese singer Misia gently apologized for the lack of physical movement in her presentation.

“There is no dance in fado,” she said. “Not like flamenco or tango or bossa nova. Just me, standing here.”

Standing there, yes, not moving, yes, but performing with an emotional intensity that made dance movements completely superfluous. Slender, with raven black hair and white skin, garbed in black with a classic fado shawl, Misia generated extraordinarily theatrical moments with the movement of an arm, or the slight manipulation of the red beads she held in one hand.

All this was at the service of what is arguably one of the world’s most vividly dramatic vocal musics. Following in the footsteps of the legendary Amalia Rodriguez, Misia has continued the revival of fado that has been taking place for the past few decades.

She has done so by adding accordion and violin to the traditional instrumentation--with its emphasis on the Portuguese guitar--and asking some of Portugal’s finest poets (including Nobel laureate Jose Saramago) to write new fado poetry.

Misia’s dark, throaty voice moved easily from gentle intimacy to a fervent shout, and her interpretations were delivered with a deep understanding of the dramatic surprises that lie in the silent moments between poetic phrases.

She was accompanied subtly and effectively by a five-piece ensemble, but the night belonged to Misia, whose talent, intelligence and sheer musical presence clearly have the capacity to bring the Portuguese passion for fado into the world music mainstream.