Step into the smoke and velvet of an imaginary Bairro Alto cabaret. Lisbon’s streets are narrow, the wine flows too freely, and the only saints here are painted on tavern walls. In this house, the songs are fados — but not the kind sung for queens and sailors. These are trovas de putaria — the gutter poetry of the eighteenth century, once whispered in taverns, shouted in brothels, passed hand to hand in clandestine manuscripts.
This album brings them to life not as relics, but as living burlesque. Each act is staged like a 1930s vaudeville revue: there is a master of ceremonies (wry, teasing, sometimes scolding Mica), a parade of putas strutting across the stage, strip routines with fans and mourning clothes, chorus-line stomps, bawdy letters read aloud, and even a ragtime funeral march of moans.
You’ll hear the Trovas d’um Fadista, where the singer boasts of his whoring lineage and philosophizes about sex and death. You’ll meet Maria, Micaela, Mariana, Francisca, and all the other neighborhood girls in their comic, erotic portraits. You’ll laugh at the fan submission letter, cut short by the MC’s dry “Seriously. Get a room. A vintém. Seriously.” And you’ll clap and stomp along with the chorus girls as the show barrels toward its raucous encore.
It is obscene, yes — gloriously so — but also playful, theatrical, alive. The Cancioneiro do Bairro-Alto was never meant for polite salons. It belonged to the people — to the back alleys, the taverns, the beds and graves of Lisbon. Here, it is dressed in sequins and feathers, backed by brass and banjo, and strutted on stage for your pleasure.
So, pour yourself a glass. Loosen your belt. And remember: in Bairro Alto, there is always one more puta waiting for her turn to sing.
Concurrent with the release of Trovas is an English version: The Bawdy Fadista; each track of this album re-adapts the tracks into English.
Background notes
Trovas is a sprawling text; more akin to a tavern-floor oral ballad than a “song” in the modern sense. I decided to shape it into something listenable by thinking about its sections, refrains, and pacing.
At its root, it is comprised of strophic verse with each quatrain (or couplets) sung to the same melody, like old fado corrido or Iberian balladry. The verses function as a catalogue song; this made me think of bawdy music-hall patter, or the “list song” tradition like Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top,” but dirtier. And being not a traditional song, there was no chorus.
Having just completed a series of sonnets which I can only classify as “burlesques,” and instead of drawing out Trovas into a long, meandering song, I broke it into shorter, more listenable segments. As the pieces came together, the content lent itself to a cabaret show – very much in the spirit of how Trovas would have been originally performed. In that light, I broke Trovas into acts in the 1930s vaudeville/strip-club idiom, including a few other adjacent poems to give variety (Cançonetas) and tracks composed for atmosphere (Stripper routines, Chorus Stomps).
Act I: The Entrance
- Opening number: “Vinde cá, rapaziada”
- Big swing-cabaret intro, band kicks in with cheeky fanfare.
- Sets the scene: singer introduces himself* as the “fadista fodilhão.”
Ends with the first refrain hook:
- “Bairro Alto! Bairro Alto, que tantas putas conténs…”
- (This line becomes the album’s chorus motif).
Act II: The Parade of Putas
- Catalogue broken into three “turns”(mini-songs), each spotlighting a handful of whores:
Turn 1 – The Local Girls
- Maria, Micaela, Mariana → arranged as fast patter verse with swing clarinet fills.
- Ends on the refrain (band hits).
Turn 2 – The Exotic & Outrageous
- Genoveva, Francisca, Francisquinha, Teresinha → all sexual extremes.
- More chaotic instrumentation: trombone slides, banjo chokes.
- Refrain again.
Turn 3 – The Tough Ones
- Bonifácia, Tomásia → heavier, almost stomp-blues backing.
- Short instrumental striptease break (muted trumpet growls, drum brushes).
- Refrain returns, mock-majestic.
Act III: The Fadista’s Philosophy
- Slower, mock-serious fado-blues hybrid.
- Verses: wanting to live merry, always fucking, until death.
- Graveyard verses delivered with comic melodrama (“Aqui jaz um fodilhão…”).
Ends with a rowdy burlesque explosion:
- “Até consta que fodera a grã puta que o pariu…”
- Crowd laughter & crashing finale.
Act IV: The Coda (Encore / Exit Music)
- Instrumental reprise of the refrain (Bairro Alto theme).
- Short spoken outro: “Foi votado à putaria, foi das putas o cantor…”
- Band vamps out like a strip-club curtain close.
* Stylistic note: I decided that I’d have Mica, the MC, do most of the singing; she sings all male vocals – and if we’re to imagine this cabaret, she’s in drag.