Casa do Artista, Lisboa,

13.01.16, 17.00h

Mrs. Linita Marques started to sing when she was 15 years old, in the Orfeao in Porto, when to the male choir was added a mixed choir and the old members were invited to bring their wives and daughters to join it; Mrs. Linita went there with her father and started to appreciate the art of singing.
She then took part in some amateur Theater Shows where she met the choreographer, writer and pianist, who then became her husband, when she was 18 years old.
At 20 she managed her professional card and in 1943 she was a professional artist contracted by different companies…
Theater was a softener in many moments of her life and she declares to have learnt a lot working in it.
After 7 years of marriage she divorced and made a long tour: eight days in Madeira Island, one month in S. Tomè, and one and a half years in Angola.
She decided then to return to Portugal where she continued collaborating with Portuguese artists such as Miranda Cardinal among others.

Mrs. Linita mentions the houses she has lived in. After marriage she moved with her Husband family. The couple then spent then some years in a new house, before the divorce. She keeps very good memories of Africa, of the beauty of the places she visited (in 1963 in Luanda she was robed of all her belongings, so she decided to come back to Portugal and was received by her father who helped her to reorganized her life).
Once back to Portugal, she spent some time in her father's house before managing a house in her name.
Her time was divided between two activities: partly working with leather, (luckily, once back from Africa, she managed to recuperate all her customers, and she even needed someone helping her in the work), partly with theater.
The house she rented in her name (in Arroios) is the house where she stayed until her 90’s, when, feeling sick and too weak to live alone, and having her family far away, she decided to move to the House of Artist; (she is a member of the House since 1999).
Casa do Artista is her last house she says; she is satisfied and feels at home there, as she still feels connected to her most beloved field: Theater.
She still likes to go to see shows, as much as she loved to join them; she felt secure on stage, and her good memory was a big help for her and her colleagues.
Once in the Revista Porto-Benfica, (a show she was joining, playing just a small number),during a presentation in Porto at the Val Formoso Theater, when the the main actress had lost consciousness, Mrs. Linita was asked to substitute her; with her good memory, she jumped on stage and saved the show! obtaining a contract for the main role, and a good remuneration.
I ask Mrs. Linita where she feels home (coming from Porto and living for a long time in Lisbon).
People of Porto, she declares, are very connected to their land; she loves Porto, the city she comes from, but at the moment she has no family there anymore, and she feels home in Lisbon. After she was diagnosed with liver disease and she decided to move from her own house where she was living alone, she found in Casa do Artista peace and quietness, and it is there she wants to stay until the end of her life.
I ask which sounds are typical of this house, and laughing, she mentions the sounds of wheelchairs…about city sounds Mrs. Linita thinks that they did not change so much in the last years, even admitting that some very typical sounds she could hear in Lisbon when she arrived from Porto have now disappeared: the street sellers with their songs to call customers to buy figs, beans and other products…the blind people playing in the streets, and people singing in the streets the songs of the theater programs to make them known…
of her time in Luanda she can not remember special sounds but she still remembers the beauty of it…
Mrs. Linita describes her relationship with music:
she always liked to sing happy repertoire (fado was too sad for her) and she loved to work for radio…Laura Alves, Ivone Silva, Palmira Bastos, Amelia Reicolase are some of the artists she admired and still remembers with admiration…
In her daily life, singing is a need: alone in her room, at the bus stop..she often surprises herself singing some melody…she had a big repertoire of original songs that her husband and his father wrote for her, but due to her schedule (working in leather from 9h to13h and 15h to 19h, and dedicating herself then to the Theater) she had never time to learn how to play piano and to compose for herself, something she regrets.
In her life she loved traveling, visiting museums, theaters, and markets…she has had the luck to visit many different place in Europe and elsewhere: Rio de Janeiro, San Paolo, New York Mexico, Canada…she has not a favorite place ..she adored all!

Mrs. Linita has a playful character; her favorite celebration since she was a young girl is Carnival and she loves to dance the Tango and Kizomba…(in Belem she used to go to a dancing place to dance or simply to listen to music).
She loves nature, but she never lived in the countryside…the city is a real part of her identity, and her ideal countryside is the one with a window looking to Rossio square (one of the central squares of Lisbon)…she is a woman of the city, she likes every thing of it…the modern things…!
Security was a very important issue for her as she had responsibility for herself and for her workers; beside this, dealing with leather meant to deal with a lot of money…and she took seriously the responsibility of administrating her life, trying to take care of her resources in order to guaranty herself a decent life until the end so that in this moment she feels a free person.
Her limits come from her sickness, forcing her to take care of her diet…something a bit difficult as she was used, by growing up with her grandparents, to always have her wishes satisfied…

We finish our conversation with some some beautiful songs and the declamation of some verses from “ A Flor de Maracujà” by Catulo da Paixao Caerense: Mrs. Linita says that her voice is not powerful anymore, but I find it pleasant and I appreciate listening to her melodies and her words…
I thank her for these presents, her time and her beautiful way of laughing while telling me about her experiences.
…to listen is to imagine…

Thank you Mrs. Linita for this pleasant time together.

Good Listening!

SPACE:

This interview recording took place in the living room of Casa do Artista, "The Blue Room", sitting around a big wooden table in a big and warm space decorated with tables, sofas, carpets, lights, where the residents can work, make music, read and stay together.

Usually the residents prefer to spend time in the rooms on the ground floor, where they can smoke and watch television, so that this room remains a quiet space to meet.