Born in Lisbon, Portugal, official documents have her date of birth as the 23rd July, but Rodrigues always said her birthday was the 1st July 1920. She was born in the rua Martim Vaz (Martim Vaz Street), freguesia of Pena, Lisbon. Her father was a trumpet player and cobbler from Fundão who returned there when Amália was just over a year old, leaving her to live in Lisbon with her maternal grandmother in a deeply Catholic environment until she was fourteen, when her parents returned to the capital and she moved back in with them.
She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado"), and was most influential in popularising fado worldwide. She was unquestionably the most important figure in the genre’s development, by virtue of an innate interpretive talent carefully nurtured throughout a forty-year recording and stage career. Rodrigues' performances and choice of repertoire pushed fado’s boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Rodrigues wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female singer - or fadista - should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards.
After a few years of amateur performances, Rodrigues’ first professional engagement in a fado venue took place in 1939, and she quickly became a regular guest star in stage revues. There she met Frederico Valério, a classically-trained composer who, recognising the potential in such a voice, wrote expansive melodies custom-designed for Rodrigues’ voice, breaking the rules of fado by adding orchestral accompaniment.
Her Portuguese popularity began to extend abroad with trips to Spain, a lengthy stay in Brazil (where, in 1945, she made her first recordings on Brazilian label Continental) and Paris (in 1949). In 1950, while performing at the Marshall Plan international benefit shows, she introduced "April in Portugal" to international audiences (under its original title "Coimbra"). In the early fifties, the patronage of the acclaimed Portuguese poet David Mourão-Ferreira marked the beginning of a new phase; Rodrigues sang many of the country's greatest poets, and some wrote lyrics specifically for her.
In 1954, Rodrigues' international career skyrocketed through her presence in Henri Verneuil’s film The Lovers of Lisbon, where she had a supporting role and performed on-screen. By the late 1950s the USA, England, and France had become her major international markets (Japan and Italy followed in the 1970s); in France especially, her popularity rivalled her Portuguese success, and she graduated to headliner at the prestigious Olympia theatre within a matter of months. Over the years, she performed nearly all over the world, going as far as the Soviet Union and Israel.
At the end of the 1950s, Rodrigues took a year off. She returned in 1962 with a richer voice, concentrating on recording and performing live at a slower pace. Her comeback album, 1962's Amália Rodrigues, was her first collaboration with French composer Alain Oulman, her main songwriter and musical producer throughout the decade. As Valério had before him, Oulman wrote melodies for her that transcended the conventions of fado. Rodrigues did not shy away from controversy: her performance in Carlos Vilardebó’s 1964 arthouse film The Enchanted Islands was better received than the film, based on a short story by Herman Melville, and her 1965 recording of poems by 16th century poet Luís de Camões generated acres of newspaper polemics. Yet her popularity remained untouched. Her 1968 single "Vou Dar de Beber à Dor" broke all sales records, and her 1970 album Com que Voz, considered by many her definitive recording, won a number of international awards.
During the 1970s, Rodrigues concentrated on live work, and embarked upon a heavy schedule of worldwide concert performances. During the frenetic period after the 25th April 1974 she was falsely accused of being a covert agent of the PIDE, causing some trauma to her public life and career. (In fact, during the Salazar years, Rodrigues had been an occasional financial supporter of some communists in need.) Her return to the recording studio in 1977 with Cantigas numa Língua Antiga was received as a triumph. The 1980s and 1990s brought her enthronement as a living legend. Her last all-new studio recording, Lágrima, was released in 1983. It was followed by a series of previously lost or unreleased recordings, and the smash success of two greatest hits collections that sold over 200,000 copies combined.
Despite a series of illnesses involving her voice, Rodrigues continued recording as late as 1990. She eventually retreated from public performance, although her career gained in stature with an official biography by historian and journalist Vítor Pavão dos Santos, and a five-hour television series documenting her fifty-year career, featuring rare archival footage (later distilled into the ninety-minute film documentary, The Art of Amália). Its director, Bruno de Almeida, has also produced Amália, Live in New York City (a concert film of her 1990 performance at New York City Hall).
Rodrigues died on the 6th October 1999 at the age of seventy-nine in her home in Lisbon. Portugal's government promptly declared a period of national mourning. Her house (in Rua de São Bento) is now a museum. She is now buried at the National Pantheon alongside other Portuguese notables.
1946.
La Casa In Via Del Campo
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Un bicchiere due risate con noi
Nella casa in via del campo
Dove dolce andava il tempo
Dove ho riso amato e tante volte
Ho pianto
Ci scaldavano le ore
Qualche volta in fondo al cuore
Di rimpianto nostalgia di non poter
Guardare il sole nella casa in
Via del campo han riperto le
Finestre quel di' le risate son
Volate lontano una ditta di trasporti
Per coloro che son morti
Con le insegne bianco e oro
Al terzo piano dove son le tende
A fiori delle lampade i colori
I capelli di Maria le sue mani
Si direbbe ormai finito tutto quanto
Nella casa in via del campo
Una notte son tornato però
Mi pareva di sentire
Come allora quelle voci
Rider forte un dischiudersi
Di porte quattro notte
Di chitarra cose morte
Ho cercato a lungo invano
Quella luce al terzo piano
Quella donna che
Sapeva anche amare
Io l'ho detto ormai e' finito
Tutto quanto
Nella casa in via del campo
Io non piango i miei vent'anni
E poi tante volte abbiamo
Pianto anche noi ma potevano lasciare
Tutto quanto riposare ora che non si potra'
Mai piu' cantare io l'ho detto
A Maria vieni a bere
Vecchia mia un bicchiere per
Poter dimenticare tanto vedi ormai e'
Finito tutto quanto
Nella casa in via del campo
Tanto vedi ormai e' finito tutto quanto
Nella casa in via del campo
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song La Casa In Via Del Campo describe a nostalgic journey into the past, into a house in Via del Campo in which the singer and her friends spent much of their time. The house, where time used to flow sweetly and where they laughed, loved, and sometimes even cried, is now closed and deserted, with only memories left. The singer remembers the good times they had, but also the sad moments, with the shadow of regret and longing still lingering deep within their hearts. The windows are closed, the laughter is gone, and the only thing left is a transport company with white and gold signs, occupying the third floor of the house. The singer comes back to the house and all she hears is a faint echo of the past, the strong laughter from the old days, the opening of doors, the sound of guitars, and the voices of those who are no longer alive.
Throughout the song, the lyrics repeatedly emphasize that everything is over, that they have to let everything rest and move on, since they can never sing, laugh or love like they used to in that house in Via del Campo. The singer tries to forget, to move on from the past, but the memories of the house's glory days are too strong, and they know that nothing can truly erase the beautiful, but now lost, past moments.
Line by Line Meaning
C'era sempreuna canzone per voi
There was always a song for you
Un bicchiere due risate con noi
A glass and two laughs with us
Nella casa in via del campo
In the house on Via Del Campo
Dove dolce andava il tempo
Where time sweetly went by
Dove ho riso amato e tante volte Ho pianto
Where I laughed, loved and cried many times
Ci scaldavano le ore Qualche volta in fondo al cuore
The hours warmed us, sometimes deep in our hearts
Rimaneva un'ombra triste Di rimpianto nostalgia di non poter Guardare il sole nella casa in Via del campo han riperto le Finestre quel di' le risate son Volate lontano una ditta di trasporti
A sad shadow of regret and nostalgia remained for not being able to watch the sun. On that day, the laughter flew far away with a transport company.
Per coloro che son morti Con le insegne bianco e oro
For those who have passed away with white and gold insignias
Al terzo piano dove son le tende A fiori delle lampade i colori I capelli di Maria le sue mani
On the third floor where there are floral curtains, colorful lamps and Maria's hair and hands.
Si direbbe ormai finito tutto quanto Nella casa in via del campo
It would seem that everything is now finished in the house on Via Del Campo.
Una notte son tornato però Mi pareva di sentire Come allora quelle voci Rider forte un dischiudersi Di porte quattro notte Di chitarra cose morte
But one night I returned and it seemed like I could hear those voices from before, laughing and the sound of doors and guitar in the dead of night.
Ho cercato a lungo invano Quella luce al terzo piano Quella donna che Sapeva anche amare
I searched for a long time in vain for that light on the third floor, for that woman who also knew how to love.
Io l'ho detto ormai e' finito Tutto quanto Nella casa in via del campo
I have already said that everything is finished in the house on Via Del Campo.
Io non piango i miei vent'anni E poi tante volte abbiamo Pianto anche noi ma potevano lasciare Tutto quanto riposare ora che non si potra' Mai piu' cantare
I don't cry for my twenties. And we have cried many times, but we could leave everything to rest now that we can never sing again.
Io l'ho detto A Maria vieni a bere Vecchia mia un bicchiere per Poter dimenticare tanto vedi ormai e' Finito tutto quanto Nella casa in via del campo
I said to Maria, come have a drink with me, old friend, and forget. You see, everything is finished now in the house on Via Del Campo.
Tanto vedi ormai e' finito tutto quanto Nella casa in via del campo
You see, everything is finished now in the house on Via Del Campo.
Contributed by Hunter F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@marcellacampagna9866
Era dicembre
Quando l' ascolto io
rivado a me
a quei giorni passati
Ubriachi di poco
Noi due, sdraiati sul
prato
a guardar le nuvole
soffiarle per noi.
Giocando a prenderci
a lasciarci e orgogliosi
sparire
Mentire e mentendo
smarrirci
per ritrovarci più forti
più amanti di noi
cresciuti fra i banchi
di scuola
innocenti ragazzi
futuri cowboys
finiti poi in bianche
rollroyce.
Allegri distanti
son ora quei giorni
ricordi di dischi lontani.
Bambini e lamenti
tu madre con fan
Tu padre generi pianti
Noi eravamo più altro
piú altrove e senza
perché.
Volevamo esser giganti
invece ci siamo cascati,
noi piccoli mostri
incantati.
Noi due sdraiati
a guardar le nuvole
soffiarle per noi.
Giocando a prenderci
a lasciarci e orgogliosi
sparire
Mentire e mentendo
smarrirci per ritrovarci
più amanti di noi
cresciuti fra i banchi
innocenti ragazzi
futuri cowboys
finiti in bianche rollroyce
Allegri distanti
son ora quei giorni
ricordi di dischi lontani
Bambini e lamenti
tu madre.
Tu padre generi pianti
Noi eravamo più
Altro
Volevamo esser giganti
invece ci siamo cascati
noi piccoli mostri
incantati...
Copyright Marcella Campagna
@adacelico
È di una bellezza unica, questa canzone! Lei la canta con una voce sublime. Infinite e forti le sensazioni che fa nascere in chi l'ascolta. Grazie.
@giuliaeroico9846
La voce di Amalia Rodriguez da un tono di allegria e dolore insieme a questa bella canzone
@marcellacampagna9866
In perfetto stile portoghese...misurata grandezza di un lmpero fallito
@giampaololeonardoruggiu716
Tutto sostanza, tecnica, espressione, controllo dell'intonazione della voce, variazioni ed abbellimenti senza esagerare, niente fuori posto... Amalia, impossessandosi del testo in lingua italiana e dandogli la sua inconfondibile impronta, ha fatto rendere questo brano quasi meglio che in portoghese. Il valore aggiunto è sempre dato dalla grandezza dell'interprete, ed Amalia in questo senso è certamente nell'Olimpo.
@rutilius58
Una delle colonne portanti della musica latina...Portogallo, Spagna, Italia, Grecia e tutta l'America Latina... grandissima Amalia🌹
@egidioarlotti8287
Meravigliosa Amalia Rodriguez...! Una gioia infinita per le orecchie, ed anche per la sua grande umanità...
@marisacornia4693
io sono un po' anziana e sono una fan di Amalia. La seguivo in teatro quando una volta all'anno veniva dalle mie parti, aveva una presenza scenica favolosa, era alta 1 m e 58 cm, quando si esibiva oltre che incantare tutti, sembrava alta 1m e 80cm.Dopo tanti anni mi da ancora i brividi
@salvatoredilanno8277
Marisa Cornia MARISA,SONO D'ACCORDO CON TE,AMALIA HA UNA VOCE BELLISSIMA,CIAO,salvatore di lanno3336084307
@zetapi47
La canzone che mi ha fatto conoscere Amalia Rodrigues oltre quarant'anni fa! Intramontabile artista che ascolto tuttora quotidianamente.
@giovannaandrisano2779
SE DOVESSI, UN GIORNO PER PURO CASO, ENTRARE IN COMA, BASTA FARMI ASCOLTARE LA VOCE DI AMALIA RODRIGUES E MI RISVEGLIEREI ALL'ISTANTE !!!