Amor Festa Devocao - Ao Vivo [Video]

by Maria Bethania

Overview

Maria Bethania's art always had a strong theatrical element, so much so than in Brazil her live performances are typically more highly anticipated than her studio albums. Unsurprisingly, Bethania has released any number of live albums. In fact, in recent times she has adopted the custom of following her ambitious studio projects with a DVD/CD package of the corresponding show, generally one year later. Accordingly, after the much acclaimed 2009 diptych Encanteria/Tua, 2010 saw the release of the double live album (and her seventh DVD!), Amor, Festa, Devocao. How many artists could get away with a double live album that includes maybe just two or three of her best loved songs? Well, Bethania, for sure. Her concerts are not your typical greatest hits parade; rather, they are theatrical spectacles centered around a main theme, the same one introduced in the studio album the show is presenting. They rely heavily on the new material, augmented by bits of spoken poetry and a few compositions from Bethania's past that may fit the bill, as well as several medleys -a song form Bethania is particularly fond of. In a way, her shows are as much about performance as about her choices and combinations (of written texts with songs, of songs with other songs in the medleys, etc). They highlight Bethania the singer as much as Bethania the musical anthropologist. In both counts, they are routinely artistic triumphs: the flow of the shows is seamless, even when accommodating highly disparate sources, and her magical voice, already a force of nature in the studio albums, finds her true home in the stage -check her brief a cappella rendition of "Curare," a pearl in a sea of riches. Amor, Festa, Devocao follows the pattern to a T, as it discusses in song Love, Celebration, and Devotion (the themes of Encanteria/Tua), and it features a whooping twenty-one songs culled from her 2009 releases, heard here almost in their entirety. The shadow of brother Caetano Veloso is never far away: Bethania honors him with a gorgeous slow version of his 1982 classic "Queixa," as well as recording "Dama do Cassino" for the first time. It should be mentioned, however, that there is nothing in Amor, Festa, Devocao to recommend it above any of the previous Bethania live releases, built along similar lines. But then again, there is no reason whatsoever not to, since there is amazingly very little material overlap and it abundantly illustrates the standard of excellence that Maria Bethania has come to incarnate. ~ Mariano Prunes

Product Details

Release Date:	11/25/2010
Label:	Biscoito Fino
UPC:	5600363980664
Rank:	209180

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Maria Bethania   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Luiz Carlos Goes   Composer
Paulo Cesar Pinheiro   Composer
Paulinho Moska   Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach   Composer
Chico Buarque   Composer
Chico Cesar   Composer
Jaime Alem   Composer
Roberto Mendes   Composer
Adriana Calcanhotto   Composer
Renato Teixeira   Composer
Capinan   Composer
Hermeto Pascoal   Composer
Caetano Veloso   Composer
Silvio Caldas   Composer
Pedro Amorim   Composer
Vander Lee   Composer
Arnaldo Antunes   Composer
Gonzaguinha   Composer
Pedro Abrunhosa   Composer
Waly Salomao   Composer
Lamartine Babo   Composer
Saul Barbosa   Composer
Rubens Nogueira   Composer
Roque Ferreira   Composer
Max Nunes   Composer
Eduardo Dussek   Composer
Etel Frota   Composer
Nizaldo Costa   Composer
Chico Amado   Composer
Cesar Mendes   Composer
Jorge Portugal   Composer
Marcio Valverde   Composer
Nelio Rosa   Composer
Geraldo Vandre   Composer
Herivelto Martins   Composer