O Globo article - Salgueiro & Vila Isabel

I translate newspaper articles to work on my Portuguese. So in case it is of interest, here is my translation from O Globo newspaper's news report of the Sambodromo rehearsals. If you speak Portuguese, you can read it yourself at www.oglobo.com.

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Samba of Rio de Janeiro Excites Salgueiro - Bateria of Vila Isabel Puts on a Show with Tradition & Modernity

by
Alberto João - O Globo Online

A Sunday with a full house in Marquês de Sapucaí. Thirty thousand people were in the grandstands for the technical rehearsals of Salgueiro, with [queen of the bateria] Viviane Araújo, and Vila Isabel, with [queen of the bateria] Miss Brazil Natália Guimarães. The size of the crowd was a record for this season.

Along with the two beauties in the Avenida, the standouts of the night were the song and the singing of the members of Salgueiro, who paid homage to the city of Rio de Janeiro in their theme, and the bateria of Vila Isabel, led by Mestre Mug, which succeeded in uniting the traditional (the force of its first surdos) and the modern (paradinhas).

The Salgueiro rehearsal began with a delay of 1 hour and thirty minutes. The majority of this time was for the warm-up of the bateria. [Not so! The delay was for a TV crew - KH] Mestre Marcão and his drummers did a "mini-show" for the public that was in the grandstands of sector 1 [mp3 to be posted in next post - KH]. The high point was when the members of the bateria opened an aisle in the middle of the bateria, crouched down and set off fireworks. With a golden dress and "samba no pé" [samba in her feet, excellent samba dancing], Viviane Araújo drew applause and ovations from the people in the grandstands.



After the fireworks, the bateria of Salgueiro presented choreographies in the ala of chocalhos, and also displayed a more secure rhythm than in the first rehearsal of the escola [in December]. Mestre Marcão seems to have found the right tempo for his bateria.

Salgueiro's rehearsal was marked by the high spirits of its members. The samba-enredo [the song] about Rio do Janeiro fits the escola very well. The salgueirenses sang well, and showed that harmonia [singing of the parade members] won't be a problem for the 2008 Carnival.

In evolução [parade flow], the alas [parade sections] still have little problems, such as one member getting into another ala that was not the ala they started in.

The commissão de frente [dance group at the beginning of the parade] did not make the mistake of their first Sambodromo rehearsal, when they didn't do a single choreography in the Avenida. This time, the members put on a show for the public. They were acting as malandros [street hoods, pimps], and wearing hats. A beautiful morena led the group.

The couple of mestre-sala and porta-bandeira [the flag couple], Ronaldinho and Gleice Simpatia, exhibited smooth coordination in their dance, but they lacked a choreography that matched the song and the parade theme.

After Salgueiro, it was the turn of Vila Isabel and the bateria of Mestre Mug, who carries on his shoulders more than 30 years of service to Carnaval. With the strong work of the "instrumentos de marcação" [the first surdos], the escola has re-gained the "heavy" style in its bateria that is its tradition. However, Mestre Mug didn't forget the modern style either, and he played around with several paradinhas. The effect made the rhythm enjoyable and easy for the singer Tinga, who sang out with a "healthy voice" [powerful singing] throughout the entire rehearsal.

Miss Brazil, Natália Guimarães, queen of the bateria, was dazzling in a silver dress. Although without much improvement in her dancing of the samba, she charmed the crowd with her smile and beauty. But it's true that though she sang the samba-enredo, when it came time to samba, she just jumped up and down. [Our section of the crowd was booing her, yelling "Samba! Samba! You can't samba!" - KH]

The director of carnaval for Vila Isabel, Ricardo Fernandes, has many reasons to leave the Sambodromo content. The samba [the song] is not one of the best of Grupo Especial, but it was "in the mouths of" [sung strongly by] of the escola members, who filled all the space on the Sambodromo runway.

"Our Harmonia directors gave our members liberty to move around on the runway, but always with responsibility and attention to the rules. I think that we succeeded in finding the balance between discipline with the technical requirements and the song, and the liberty of the members," explained Ricardo Fernandes.

One of the main standouts of the Vila Isabel rehearsal was the entrance of the bateria in the second recuo [pull-out spot], which is between sectors 9 and 11 of the grandstands. The escola gave a lesson in how to not create a gap in the parade in the Avenida, and not forcing its passistas to run through the Sambodromo [to catch up with the ala in front, after the bateria has moved off the parade route], as generally happens with the majority of escolas.

The ala in front of the bateria stopped immediately after it passed the recuo, and the ala behind the bateria didn't waste any time and succeeded in closing the space, synchronized perfectly as the bateria members entered into the recuo. A lesson in parade flow by Vila Isabel, despite the size of the escola, which doesn't even have the same number of members as Salgueiro.

The ala of baianas put on quite a show. All the ladies sang the 2008 samba-enredo, "Trabalhadores do Brasil," very stronglyl.

The couple of mestre-sala and porta-bandeira, Julinho and Rute, had excitement and beauty in their dancing, but still do not appear to be totally "entrosado" (in harmony with each other, synchronized). In a few moments of the rehearsal, Rute talked with Julinho about the performance of the pair.

The commissão de frente, led by Marcelo Missalidis, used the same choreography that will be used during the official parade. This attitude is laudable, since many choreographers keep their choreographies secret and end up frustrating the "povão" [the people, the regular Brazilians] who come to see the technical rehearsals and who can't be in the Avenida during the actual Carnival.

Salgueiro and Vila Isabel will rehearse in the Sambodromo again on the 25th of January.

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A couple more notes from Kathleen;

Re Vila's first surdos
When Vila Isabel started up, I was around the corner and couldn't see them, and thought I must have read the schedule wrong and that it must be Mangueira, because the primeiros were so strong! Later I faintly heard the second surdos, came around the corner and saw all the blue-and-white, and realized it must be Vila Isabel. I've never before noticed how powerful their first surdos are.

Re Salgueiro's tempo:
I clocked Salgueiro at a steady 138, both last night in the Sambodromo and also in their quadra on Wednesday. (Save one moment in the Sambodromo when the repinique called them in too fast, but they settled back to 138 within ten minutes.) I have been so happy that the escolas have started slowing down their tempos in the last couple years. Samba swings best and is at its most dance-able (I think) in the range of 135-142, with 138 being just about my favorite. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this. I heard lots of complaints about escolas playing too fast, and the Monobloco and Banga leaders both used to get positively furious if we tried to play any faster than 140. '"It just doesn't SWING when it's faster!" they kept saying.

But the big escolas had all inched up their tempos slowly over the years. If you have the dvd that shows the Carnival winners of the past twenty years, watch the tempo creeps up from year to year. The story is that it's because the parades kept getting bigger, but there is a fixed time limit, they need a faster tempo to try to get everybody to march faster. Trying to get all 4500 marchers across the finish line within the required 1 hour and a 20 minutes. Otherwise they have points deducted for time faults. (Grande Rio lost the championship in 2006 by going just 1 minute over the time limit and being docked one-tenth of a point!)

They'd started playing at 150 or even 160 by the late 1990s, with the apex, or nadir, being a few years back when Mangueira paraded at a horrifying 170bpm. (I heard this from Fred Castillo of Monobloco, who was watching them at home on his tv and was so shocked he got out a metronome to time them.)

Nobody really likes it that fast, and, to everyone's relief, many escolas finally slowed down last year. But Salgueiro was still lightspeed last year. So I am really pleased to hear them playing at such a beautiful, swinging, danceable tempo. It's the first time I've ever heard them at this tempo, and they really sound fantastic! O Globo may have preferred Vila, but I loved Salgueiro best.