Maria Severa Onofriana (26 July 182030 November 1846), also known simply as A Severa, was a Portuguese

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado ...

singer and guitarist. She is regarded, in her short life, as the first fado singer to have risen to fame, attaining a near-mythical status after her death. Fado has been described as the Portuguese expression of "the blues", and ''fado'' roughly means 'fate'.

Biography

Maria Severa Onofriana was born in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, in the neighborhood of Madragoa in 1820. She was the daughter of Severo Manuel and Ana Gertrudes. Severa's father was of cigano ancestry. Her mother was originally from

Ovar Ovar ( or ) is a city and a municipality in Aveiro District, Baixo Vouga Subregion in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 55,398, in an area of 147.70 km2. It had 42,582 eligible voters (2006). The municipality includes two cities: Ovar (16 ...

, migrated to Lisbon with Ovar fishermen, worked as a prostitute and became the owner of a

tavern A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...

. Severa's mother had the nickname ''A Barbuda'' ('the bearded woman'). Severa is said to have been a tall and gracious courtesan or prostitute, and would sing the fado in taverns where she would also play the

Portuguese guitar The Portuguese guitar (, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses watch-key or Preston tuners. It is iconically associated with t ...

. One of her lovers was Francisco de Paula Portugal e Castro, 13th Count of Vimioso. She died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

aged 26, on 30 November 1846 in Rua do Capelão, Lisbon, and was buried in a

common grave A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pur ...

in the

Alto de São João Cemetery Alto de São João Cemetery ( Portuguese: ''Cemitério do Alto de São João'') is the largest cemetery in Lisbon, Portugal, located in the ''freguesia'' (civil parish) of Penha de França, in eastern Lisbon (formerly, within the parish of São J ...

In popular culture

Maria Severa's fame grew also due to a novel by

Júlio Dantas Júlio Dantas, GCC (1876 – 25 May 1962) was a Portuguese doctor, poet, journalist, politician, diplomat and playwright. Biography Writing career In 1902, Dantas published the one-act verse play '' A Ceia dos Cardeais'' (''The Dinner of the ...

, entitled ''A Severa'', which was then made into a play that was brought to the stage in 1901. In 1931, director

Leitão de Barros A suckling pig is a piglet fed on its mother's milk (i.e., a piglet which is still a "suckling"). In culinary contexts, a suckling pig is slaughtered between the ages of two and six weeks. It is traditionally cooked whole, often roasted, in ...

turned the play into the first

Portuguese film The following are lists of Portuguese films ordered by decade and year of release. For an alphabetical list of Portuguese films see :Portuguese films. 1930s to 1990s * List of Portuguese films of the 1930s * List of Portuguese films of the 1940s ...

to feature

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

, '' A Severa''. A romantic musical, ''Maria Severa Onofriana'', opened on 19 July 2011 at the Shaw Festival in

Niagara-On-The-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York (state), New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the R ...

, Ontario, with book, music and lyrics by Jay Turvey and Paul Sportelli, directed by Jackie Maxwell and starring Julie Martell as Maria Severa.

References

''Maria Severa'' musical
at José Lúcio Ribeiro de Almeida – Instrumentos Musicais Populares Portugueses {{DEFAULTSORT:Severa Onofriana, Maria 1820 births 1846 deaths 19th-century Portuguese women singers 19th-century guitarists 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Portuguese fado guitarists Portuguese fado singers Portuguese people of Romani descent Tuberculosis deaths in Portugal Singers from Lisbon Calé people