Manuela Cavaco
Seven photographs from one night at Fado ao Carmo, scrolling over the actual recording as it plays through. Turn the sound on in the corner, and give it a few quiet minutes.
Fado ao Carmo sits in Chiado, a short walk from the ruined nave of the Convento do Carmo — left roofless by the 1755 earthquake and still standing open to the sky above the square the house takes its name from.
Manuela Cavaco is Capítulo IX's guest singer, taking the floor at Fado ao Carmo for a night of fado in the heart of Chiado.
The song is "Maldição," set to the traditional Fado Bacalhau — words by Fernando Farinha, one of fado's own great mid-century voices, credited here as poet rather than singer, with music by José António da Silva.
Luís Guerreiro returns on guitarra portuguesa — a permanent member of Mariza's band since 2003 and a resident guitarrista at Fado ao Carmo itself, first seen in this series back in Capítulo VII.
Flávio César Cardoso takes guitarra acústica for the night, the two guitars carrying "Maldição" the way Fado Bacalhau has carried a hundred different sets of words before it.
Recorded on the 30th of August 2026 — Chiado's shopfronts and theatres a few streets over, and none of it audible from inside this room.
The last frame of the night — one more room added to a series that keeps finding them, one voice at a time.
Seven frames from a fado house tucked behind Chiado's ruined convent.
Photographed and recorded by Luis Roquette Valdez, Fado ao Carmo, Chiado, Lisbon, 30 August 2026.