Fado at Midnight in an Alfama Tasca

Fado is Portugal's great musical tradition — a song form built entirely around saudade, a word that does not translate cleanly into English and is usually rendered as 'longing' or 'melancholy,' though neither captures it. Saudade is more specific: it is the feeling of loving something that is absent, the pleasure of pain, the sweetness of loss. Fado makes this feeling into music, and when it is performed well, in a small room, late at night, with a glass of Vinho Verde in your hand, it does something to your chest.

The Alfama is Lisbon's oldest neighbourhood — a Moorish labyrinth of steep alleys, washing lines, and tilework climbing the hill below the Castelo de Sao Jorge. Its tascas (small taverns) have hosted fado since the early 19th century. The tourist-facing fado houses are fine but expensive and often feel managed. The real experience is in the smaller venues: eight tables, a fadista (vocalist) with a viola baixo and a Portuguese guitarra, no microphone, eyes closed.

The Portuguese guitarra is specific to fado — a twelve-stringed lute with a round soundboard and a characteristic metallic chime that underpins the voice. The vocalist does not perform so much as transmit. At its best, fado is not entertainment. It is witness to something. Plan to eat dinner early, then move to Alfama after ten. The music starts properly at eleven and ends when it decides to.