Mariana Correia
Eight 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 is a dinner house in Alfama built around professional fado rather than the amateur floor — the Museu do Fado's own guide to the city's fado venues lists it among its resident houses.
Mariana Correia is Capítulo VII's guest singer — a Lisbon-born fadista who spent decades performing in Geneva, where she co-founded Fado Fatum Guitarras and released three records, before returning to sing in Lisbon and Porto.
The song is "Amor Total" — the poem credited to José Fernandes Castro, a working fado lyricist whose words appear across the tradition's repertoire.
The music is credited to Armando Machado, set to Fado Santa Luzia — a real, reused fado melody of his, carrying different lyrics from different poets over the years, Carminho's own 2018 "Se Vieres" among them.
Luís Guerreiro plays guitarra portuguesa tonight — a permanent member of Mariza's band since 2003, who has also accompanied Camané, António Zambujo and Carminho, and a resident guitarrista at Fado ao Carmo itself.
João Domingos returns on guitarra acústica, the pairing of instruments that's carried the series since Capítulo II. Tiago Correia hosts, as he has every chapter of this project.
Recorded on the 3rd of May 2026 — dinner service winding down, the room narrowing to just the two guitars and one voice.
A career that started in a fado house in Geneva, carried on in a fado house in Alfama — the same three chords, a long way from home and back again.
Eight frames from a Geneva fadista's return to sing in an Alfama dining room.
Photographed and recorded by Luis Roquette Valdez, Fado ao Carmo, Alfama, Lisbon, 3 May 2026.