Maria Bethânia 80 years old: singer dominates the stage with magnetic presence

Maria Bethânia on stage at the 2015 show 'Embrace and thank'
Rodrigo Goffredo
♫ MARIA BETHÂNIA 80 YEARS OLD
♬ Maria Bethânia has built a practically impeccable discography over the course of her 61-year recording career. The artist's strength also manifests itself in studio recordings. However, there is a consensus among Bethânia's followers - a singer who turns 80 today, June 18th, surrounded by praise on social media and in the cultural press - that it is on stage that the performer expresses herself to the fullest.
In fact, Bethânia dominates the stage with a magnetic stage presence. So much so that it was on stage that the singer caught Brazil's attention for the first time, in February 1965, when she sang "Carcará" in the theatrical show "Opinião". From then on, Maria Bethânia established herself as the lady of the scene.
In the beginning, the shows were in nightclubs. Afterwards, they began to be performed in theaters - a natural habitat for performers with a dramatic flair. As Bethânia's popularity increased, from the second half of the 1970s onwards, the singer began to perform in large concert halls.
Recently, he toured arenas and stadiums in Brazil alongside Caetano Veloso on a tour based on the magnitude of the brothers' reunion on stage. And the force is the same on the stage of a stadium or on the stage of a small venue with just over 100 seats like the Rio club Manouche, where Bethânia debuted the show "Claros breus" in July 2019.
With the help of director Fauzi Arap (1938 - 2013), Maria Bethânia crystallized a mold of conceptual spectacle in which songs and texts (generally poems) are sewn into scripts that never lose their meaning. thread. The embryo of the formula was the show "Comigo me desavim", premiered in 1967. However, it was from the anthological show "Rosa dos ventos - O show enchanted", in 1971, that the seam came together and set the tone for the artist's subsequent shows.
Within the (limited) radius of vision of the g1 columnist and music critic, the shows " Nossomos Momentos " (1982), " Imitação da vida " (1997), " Maricotinha " (2001), " Dentro do mar tem rio " (2006) and " Embracing and grateful " (2015) stand out in Maria Bethânia's career on stage.
It is in the scene that the performer's keen intelligence comes to the fore, capable of editing a long poem by Fernando Pessoa (1888 - 1935) with precise timing so that the verses have the greatest possible effect on the audience. This is when inflections and pauses made at the right time prove to be as important as the singing itself.
Bethânia is a stage animal. You know where you're stepping. Therefore, he dominates the scene, being able to revitalize an old song, enhancing the meaning of this composition by re-presenting it in a clever medley. Just remember the combination of the samba "Purificar o Subaé" (Caetano Veloso, 1981) with "Miséria" (Arnaldo Antunes, Paulo Miklos and Sérgio Britto, 1989) - a hit by the group Titãs - in the show "Brasileirinho" (2003). It all made (some) sense.
Bethânia also always knew that a show could never be the mere reproduction of a record. The script needs to offer something more, even if it's a new song in the artist's song! And that was how "Gitã" (Raul Seixas, 1974) magnetized the spectators of the show performed by Bethânia with Chico Buarque in 1975.
It was also like this that "Vida", a song released by the same Chico Buarque in 1980, reappeared two years later, duly intense and definitive in Bethânia's performance in the show " Nosso Momentos " (1982). Moments of light - "Light, I want light!", he shouted when singing "Vida" - of voice and of dreams, as poetized by Caetano Veloso in the song made for the aforementioned 1982 show. Intense moments. Moments of too much love that springs from Maria Bethânia's magnetic singing every time this lady singer enters the scene to dominate the stage.
♫ Read other texts about Maria Bethânia's 80th birthday:
♬ Maria Bethânia 80 years old: discover eight less heard (but no less relevant...) albums by the singer
♬ Maria Bethânia 80 years old: discover 80 recordings that attest to the great strength of the performer in six decades of album
♬ Maria Bethânia turns 80 with the intact haughtiness of her supernatural singing that educates, moves and, often, inebriates

Source: G1