Maria Sidónio

Maria Sidónio considers herself a woman kissed by luck. During her artistic life she had the opportunity to perform in many theatres and radio shows. She debuts at Emissora Nacional (1943) and performs in Serões para Trabalhadores.

She got married to the writer Anibal Nazaré who opened her the door to vaudeville theatre. In this period she debuts in motion pictures, at the movie "A noiva do Brasil" (1945), directed by Santos Mendes and starred by the actor Virgílio Castelo.

She got divorced and began a 20-year relationship with Tony de Matos, with whom she opens a restaurant in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) called "O Fado". Its great star was Tony de Matos, who sang almost every night, while Maria Sidónio managed the restaurant. Maria Sidónio remembers this period dearly.

Simultaneously, Maria Sidónio attends a course in ceramics and after7 years in Brazil, she returns to Portugal in the 1970s and opens a ceramics exhibition at the former SNI installations. The most representative figures of her artistic work are Santo António and the nativity scenes she made until the end of her life.

During her artistic pathway she performed in many vaudeville plays, such as "Há Festa no Coliseu" (1944), among others, where she shared the stage with vaudeville theatre’s greatest names; she holds to dear memories of those times: "...I never was unhappy while I worked in theatre; I was always applauded and so I can not wish for more, a very good experience, the audience wanted and liked to hear us sing and perform”.

Her repertoire as essentially composed of Brazilian songs.

She spent the last years of her life at Casa do Artista, dying on the 29 March 2007.

Source:

Museu do Fado – interviewed on the 13 December 2006.