Opera diva flirts with fado

She usually sings Bellini's "Norma", Verdi's "La Traviata" and Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor": Elena Moșuc, celebrated star soprano who lives in Zollikon. He is a highly revered and very successful fado singer in his native Portugal: Gonçalo Salgueiro. When their voices combine to form fado duets, the audience is left breathless, and the elegance and melodiousness of their voices create a sound of timeless beauty.

It certainly takes a lot of courage to write to your idol, especially when it is a celebrated opera star who is at home on all the world's stages. Gonçalo Salgueiro, fado star from Lisbon, had this courage. The versatile and highly talented fado singer has been an opera fan since childhood, so in November 2013 he simply wrote a Facebook message to his idol Elena Moșuc. He congratulated her on her new Donizetti CD and outed himself as her big fan. Shortly afterwards, the fado singer sent his idol a link with the recording of Jesus' aria - from "Jesus Christ Superstar", sung by himself. Elena Moșuc was thrilled: "I was very impressed by his singing - musical singers usually shout, but Gonçalo sings intimately, very refined and elegantly. I liked that, I wrote to him about it, and after a while Gonçalo sent me some of his fado recordings. I didn't know that he also sings fado!

"Gonçalo, we have to talk about our concert!"

Elena Moșuc was in her hometown of Iasi in Romania at the time, so she quickly sent the talented singer a text message saying: "Gonçalo, we have to talk about our concert!" Over in Lisbon, a fado singer jumped for joy, because, as Gonçalo said: "I hadn't expected that at all!" And so Elena Moșuc organized her first joint concert "OperFado" with the Portuguese singer at the opera house in her Romanian hometown of Iasi in 2014, and a wonderful friendship began that now goes far beyond music, because Gonçalo Salgueiro says of Elena Moșuc: "She is a wonderful person, a great colleague and now even my best friend."

The old fadistas sang fado like opera

Elena Moșuc, who spontaneously decided in 2013 to work with a Portuguese fado singer she had never heard of before, is still delighted with this decision today, as she can now look back on several concerts with Gonçalo Salgueiro and considers it a great gift: "Back then, I really wanted to do something new alongside opera", and fado singing is a great enrichment in my life," explains the opera diva, "not to mention the fantastic collaboration with Gonçalo! He is so talented and versatile." Salgueiro also sings musicals, chanson, pop and opera. Elena Moșuc discovered that fado and opera have an intrinsic connection through her involvement with this art form, which has even been an official intangible world cultural heritage site since 2011. "I listened to a lot of traditional fado pieces and I noticed that the old fado singers, the 'fadistas', sang fado like we opera singers sing our opera pieces - namely with a lot of pathos and drama - which is why this singing really suits me," explains the singer with shining eyes. "Cecilia Bartoli has her Scintilla orchestra. Maybe one day I'll have an opera fado orchestra."

Gonçalo Salgueiro adds: "Elena Moșuc has the unique ability to understand fado from the inside out." Salgueiro gave Moșuc's first fado recordings to experienced Portuguese fado singers to listen to and received nothing but first-class feedback from them: "The old fado singers, who are very critical, said: 'Finally someone who can sing the original fado songs by Amália Rodrigues'."

Fado magic in Zurich and Vaduz

The magic of fado will unfold at two concerts in Zurich and Vaduz in June: Solo pieces, duets and original compositions will be sung by Salgueiro, who is also known as a fado author in the best Portuguese tradition. As the icing on the cake, the two will also sing Italian, Spanish and French songs in fado style, accompanied by three guitarists.

ELENA MOȘUC AND GONÇALO SALGUEIRO
08.06.16, BERNHARD THEATER ZURICH
12.06.16, VADUZER-SAAL VADUZ
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