Brazil Music News
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Thursday marked the 30-year anniversary of the death of Brazil’s greatest female vocalist ever, Elis Regina. This month singer Maria Rita will comb through the numerous anthologies and hits of her mother, Elis, to choose the songs that will make up a retrospective show, which opens March 17 in Sao Paulo. The show will visit five capitals, including Porto Alegre, integrating exhibitions planned for this year.
Thirty-Year Anniversary: Elis Regina Death
Entitled “Live Elis,” the project, headed by the eldest son of Elis Regina, Joao Marcello Boscoli, a founder of the record label Trama. Sponsored by Nivea, the initiative includes, besides the shows, a multimedia show with videos, TV specials, records, photographs, documents, clothing, personal items, concert posters, articles and interviews in newspapers and magazines, among other items amassed by the family with the support of fans and collectors who voluntarily organized themselves and gave their collections to produce the exhibit.
The effort aims at preserving for posterity the various collections of Elis memorabilia to help create an Elis Regina Institute with headquarters in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro (cities where Elis lived) or her hometown of Porto Alegre. In addition to the institute, the project intends to use research and interviews undertaken by Allen Guimaraes, one of those involved in the project, for a book which they will deliver to libraries throughout the country.
While the program of songs hasn’t yet been formalized, there is a great expectation of which of Elis’ songs will be included in the show, which comes to Porto Alegre in the middle of the year. Elis’ son, João, said the final decision rests with his sister, Maria, who will be selecting the songs this month to begin rehearsals in February, accompanied by a quartet of musicians (piano, bass, drums and guitar).
In a statement to Zero Hora via email, on Tuesday, João commented that he is also eager to know which songs his sister, Maria Rita, will choose.
“I don’t know anything of the repertoire, but I am curious.”
The tributes to mark 30 years without Elis are not limited to the initiative by the two children of the singer.
Those of us around the world who consider Brazilian music a world treasure, and who share the passion of the people of Brazil for this gift, share your sorrow during the thirty year anniversary of the death of Elis Regina. Both her technical skill, and that indefinable magic that only the greatest artists have, and which expresses itself uniquely with each of them, were amazing, and her light remains as clear and as bright as during her own lifetime. The tragedy of her death at such an early age, and of the circumstances preceding her death, cannot lessen this glow that she put into the world. Thank you to the people of Brazil for sharing your music, which is such an expression of the joy and the beauty of your land and of yourselves. Special thanks to her children and to all the others who are keeping this woman’s work before us.