Brazilian evening in the Baix Empordà. The singer and composer Marisa Monte uncorked last night in Sant Feliu de Guíxols the sixtieth edition of the Porta Ferrada International Festival, the dean of those held in Catalonia. According to the response of the public that this inaugural proposal deserved –around a thousand spectators, according to what was indicated to La Vanguardia by sources from the organization of the event–, the cycle continues to enjoy attractiveness at such a respectable age.
Marisa Monte presented her album Portas, released in 2021, exactly a decade after her previous solo work. Ten years in which our protagonist has not exactly remained lying down to the bartola. In the meantime, he has dedicated himself to several projects, including the recording (and subsequent tour) in 2017 of the second album by Tribalistas, the MPB supergroup that he integrates with his good friends Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown. It is also relevant that, at the end of last year, the artist traveled to San Remo to receive the Tenco award, being the first Brazilian woman to be distinguished with such a prestigious award.
Last night, and after a canned introduction with the delicate Pelo que durar , Mrs. Monte quickly got down to business offering the fans gathered in this corner of the Costa Brava the title track of her new production, the content of which would alternate with a generous selection of his musical career, which began in 1991 with Mais, and which to date has brought him up to four Latin Grammys.
He was accompanied on stage by an impeccable formation made up of eight instrumentalists, among them the veteran bassist Dadi Carvalho (also linked to Trobalistas) and the guitarist and pianist Chico Brown, son of Carlinhos Brown and grandson of Chico Buarque; also an attractive wind section formed by trombone, trumpet and sax.
Dressed in a silver glitter dress and headband, and after a second allusion to the content of Portas through the remarkable Quanto tempo , Marisa Monte faced the rearview mirror in the following installments of the repertoire revealed this Saturday, turning to Maria de Verdade , a very well received Vilarejo and, returning to his most recent work, A língua dos animais , with remarkable work in metals. Also noteworthy is the careful video story that illustrated the songs in the background of the proscenium.
At the close of this edition, all the forecasts indicated that the singer from Rio de Janeiro would offer the audience new samples of her most recent work such as Feliz, alegría e forte , Elegant dawn or Vento sardo , the latter of which she recorded with Jorge Drexler as guest. All this, together with older pieces such as Ainda lembro , Preciso meencontro or Bem que se quis , his fortunate rereading of Pino Daniele’s E po’ che fa’ which is usually the final fireworks of his recitals, as well as some nods to his work with the aforementioned Tribalists.
Marisa Monte and her people occupied the stage of the Espai Port, a charming auditorium set up for the occasion half a stone’s throw from Mediterranean waters that this Saturday were also a bit carioca, and to which the public returned after two years of pandemic, in which the activity of the festival had focused on the Guíxols Arena, a more suitable space taking into account the measures of interpersonal distance that had to be observed in those not so distant times. The attendees, rather mature in terms of average age, had paid between 35 and 60 euros to attend the party.
