Duo Fado at GSI

Duo Fado is mezzo soprano Melinda Becker and guitarist Thomas Walsh, who met while students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Specializing in music from the Iberian peninsula they have already performed in Spain, Portugal, Egypt, and throughout Southern California. They stopped by GSI last week and were kind enough to shoot some videos for us. They also sent us some nice descriptions of the pieces they played. Continue reading to see the videos.

La Maja Dolorosa, Tonadilla No. 1 by Enrique Granados (1867-1916)

In writing La Maja Dolorosa, three intensely sad pieces, Granados meant to evoke the ‘majas’ or maidens depicted by the great Spanish painter, Goya. A tonadilla was a type of romantic song typical in 18th century Madrid. In this first Tonadilla, the maja evokes her dead lover with passionate despair.

Thomas is playing a 2012 Tobias Berg.

A La Una arr. by Matilde Salvador (1918-2007)

Matilde Salvador arranged this and a collection of Sephardic folk songs in her cycle, Endechas Y Cantares de Sefarad. A La Una is a 13th century love song, popular among Sephardic Jews, which still retains popularity today. It is sung in a Judeo-Spanish language called Ladino, which has heavy influence from Hebrew and Aramaic, and in some cases Arabic, Turkish and Greek depending on where exiled Sephardic Jews settled in the Mediterranean and the East.

Thomas is playing a Felipe Conde CE-2.