Palácio Nacional de Queluz and the Grupo Coral de Queluz - 08/05/2005

On the same Sunday as the Mamma Mia! Show I went with my mother to Palácio Nacional de Queluz to see a friend of mine perform in a choral group called Grupo Coral de Queluz. We only went to one of the rooms of the palace; I suppose it used to be a ballroom and it was beautiful.

We got there late so we missed the first 2 songs of my friend’s choral group but we were still in time to see the Jograis (people who sing/recite poetry) who were singing/reciting poetry, mainly poetry about the 25th of April which was the day that Portugal had a more or less pacific revolution (only a few people died in Portugal, in the old colonies there were still a lot of Portuguese who died) that ended the dictatorship regime in which the country was living. I’ve always found it hard to follow recited poetry, I really enjoy more reading the poetry to myself and absorb it that way, the message is much clearer to me. My mother didn’t enjoy the poetry as her level of Portuguese isn’t the best and even my friend told me that their performance was too big as they asked the Jograis to sing only for 20 minutes (they were the guests) but they nearly sang for 1 hour.

After the Jograis left the stage, we had the chance to enjoy my friend’s performance. I can’t say if she sang well as she was singing with the rest of the choral group, but as it seemed that nobody was singing badly I think she must have sang quite well. They repertoire was quite nice, beautiful Portuguese traditional songs and some were even accompanied by a piano, so it was a nice way too pass my afternoon.

After the concert we went and see the place where the choral group rehearses. It used to be a place were people, in the old days, washed their clothes by hand and I think you can only find these kind of places in Portugal, a few are still being used by older people. I remember going to the river, with my granny, when I arrived in Portugal, to wash clothes, but when I went with my granny it was to a natural washing place by the river (she didn’t enjoy the one which had been built, before the river and only my granpa gave bath to his dogs there). Maybe I can get a photo as I can’t describe this place to those who have never seen such a place.

Anyway they used the old hand washing place and covered it to build the rehearsal place and it is now quite a cozy place to be. Afterwards we went to have some a slice of cake with tea/coffee which my friend insisted paying so thanks once again for the lovely concert and of course the cake and coffee ;)

For those who live in Portugal I recommend a visit to Palácio Nacional de Queluz (as you can see in the picture it also has a beautiful garden that I must check, as I didn’t have time to do so) and to go and see my friend in one of her concerts (you can find a calendar with the scheduled concerts in this link http://grupocoraldequeluz.no.sapo.pt/agenda.htm).
Palácio Nacional de Queluz