• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • Dance
  • Fashion
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Food
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • New York
  • Latin
  • Culture
  • Magazine
  • Things To Do in NYC
  • Travel
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsor

Bibi Ferreira, the Grand Dame of Brazilian Stage

Brazilian legend of stage and screen Bibi Ferreira is back in New York to debut “4 x Bibi” at Symphony Space September 20 & 23, 2016.

4 x Bibi celebrates the star’s legendary 75-year career through the music of 1) Edith Piaf (French), 2) Amalia Rodrigues (Portuguese), 3) Carlos Gardel (Argentine) and 4) Frank Sinatra. To sing any one of these legends well would be enough. Bibi does it all.

“4 x Bibi” includes classics such as Sinatra’s “That’s Life,” and “The Lady is a Tramp;” Rodrigues’s “Fadinho Serrano” and “Povos Que Lavas no Rio;” Piaf’s “Je Ne Regrette Rien” and “Hymne a l’Amour,” and Gardel’s “Cuesta Abajo.”  Ferreira will be performing with a 12-piece band conducted by her arranger and musical director Flavio Mendes.

It is worth seeing the show just to hear Bibi tell her stories, so many stories about live, love, age, and showbiz.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 8pm
Friday, September 23, 2016 at 8pm
75 minutes in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre

>> Tickets $70-40 | Members, Seniors, Students $60-30

About Bibi Ferreira

Bibi Ferreira is better known in Latin America and Europe than she is in the States. Bibi is the Brazilian Liza Minnelli, an actress of stage and screen who has done it all, and done it well.

In fact, Liza Minnelli famously joined Bibi on stage at Lincoln Center a few years ago. Backstage Minnelli told “New York Post” reporter Richard Johnson that watching Bibi perform was “the highlight of her life, as seminal as when she saw Aznavour in Paris at 16.” Aznavour is the French Frank Sinatra and was dubbed Entertainer of the Century by “CNN,” so that is quite a comparison.

The 94-year old Bibi is a force of nature who just keeps going. She says she will never stop performing.

In fact, Bibi was born onto the stage in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in 1922. Her father Procópio Ferreira was was one of Brazil’s greatest actors, and also a director and playwright. Her mother was Spanish ballerina Aída Izquierdo of the legendary Queirolo circus family. Bibi’s career started when she was just 24-days old. When nobody could find the prop doll as the curtain was about to rise, someone suggested the baby Bibi who was backstage.

So Bibi was introduced to her first audience in the arms of her Godmother and namesake Abigail Maia (1887-1981), a legend of early Brazilian cinema.

As a child Bibi toured Latin America with her mother. By age three, she was singing and dancing as “La niña de Velasco” (The child of Velasco).

Bibi’s professional debut came in 1941 when she was 18 in the Italian play “La Locandiera” (The Mistress of the Inn) by Carlo Goldoni. A few years later Bibi started her own theater company Companhia de Comédias Bibi Ferreira (Comedy Company Bibi Ferreira). She spent the 1950s charming audiences in Portugal.

Bibi Ferreira singing “Morena Cor de Canela” in 1947

In the 1960s Bibi brought Broadway’s biggest musicals to Brazil. She starred in “My Fair Lady,” “Hello Dolly!,” and “Man of La Mancha.”

In the 1960s and 70s Bibi hosted Brazilian variety television shows. Her style still influences live studio variety shows today. They remain a  popular form of entertainment across the Latin world.

In 1975, Bibi debuted “Gota d’Água” (Water Drop) by Chico Buarque and Paulo Pontes. “Gota d’Água” is one of the most important works of 20th-century Brazilian theatre.

Bibi has been singing Edith Piaf for over thirty years. The French government honored her with its highest award, Le Orde des Arts et des Lettres, twice.

After seeing one of Bibi’s Edith Piaf shows, Portuguese Amália Rodrigues, the Queen of Fado, asked Bibi to portray her on stage. That led to “Bibi Vive Amália” (Bibi Lives Amália) in 2001.

Bibi’s 2010 show was “De Pixinguinha a Noel, passando por Gardel” (From Pixinguinha to Noel going through Gardel). An Argentine newspaper wrote that Bibi taught the Argentines how to sing the Tango.

Bibi first came to New York in 2013 for a sold out show at Lincoln Center. That is when Liza Minnelli was so moved that Minelli joined Bibi on stage for an impromptu “New York, New York.”

Later that year, Bibi sold out The Town Hall with her Edith Piaf show.

Bibi is back in New York once again and not to be missed.

Bibi Ferreira is not just a performer, she is a major multicultural influencer. Bibi helped define the contemporary Brazilian character by bringing European and American culture to Brazil. She also helped define Brazil for the audiences of the world. Muito legal (very cool).

How does Bibi keep going? To preserve her voice, she doesn’t talk in the days before the show. Then just before Bibi steps on stage, she takes a shot of espresso with a spoonful of butter for her throat.

Et voila! Bibi Ferreira.


Published September 18, 2016 ~ Updated September 2, 2022.

Filed Under: Brazilian, Fado, French Archive, Latin Music, People, Portuguese Archive, Symphony Space, Tango

Primary Sidebar

Mexican Opera in Spanish

Ailyn Pérez in "Florencia el el Amazonas" (Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Mexican Opera “Florencia en el Amazonas” Stars Ailyn Pérez in Spanish at the Metropolitan Opera

Dominican Alternative + Haitian Afrobeats

Yasser Tejeda Dominican Alternative (Harlem Stage)

Yasser Tejeda and DJ Sabine Blaizin Get Everyone Dancing at Harlem Stage

Puerto Rican Bomba & Plena, Cuban Jazz Holidays

Arturo O'Farrill and Juan Gutiérrez "Navidad Nuyorkina" (Hostos Center)

Los Pleneros de la 21 Celebrate 40 Years with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra “Una Navidad Nuyorkina” at Hostos

Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda

Papo Vázquez (artist/Hostos)

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours Play a Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda at Hostos Center

Mexican Holiday Folkloric Ballet

Ballet Nepantla "Nacimiento" (Nina Galicheva/BN)

Ballet Nepantla “Nacimiento” is a Holiday Folkloric Ballet About The Birth of the Mexican People From Indigenous and Spanish Roots

Cuban Son Musical

Buena Vista Social Club™ musical (Atlantic Theater Company)

Buena Vista Social Club™ is now a Saheem Ali musical about a band of retired Cubans who made the whole world dance again, at the Atlantic Theater Company

Theatre Professionals ~ Theatre Employers Network

Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE.

Things to Do in NYC

Things to do in NYC in November 2023

Things to do in NYC in December 2023

Things to do in NYC in January 2024

Sponsored By The Best Of New York

2023 Sponsors 🙏🏽

92nd Street Y, New York

Atlantic Theater Company

Ballet Hispánico

Ballet Nepantla 🇲🇽

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company 🇲🇽

CCCADI Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

Carnegie Hall

Harlem Stage

Hostos Center

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Parade

Marco Orsini Documentary Filmmaker 🇵🇷

Metropolitan Opera

New York City Center

RISE Theatre Directory

Robert Browning Associates

Teatro Real, Royal Opera of Madrid

Footer

Search

Sponsor

New York City's leading cultural organizations sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine®

Subscribe

Subscribe to New York Latin Culture Magazine's email.

Follow

¡WEPA!

New York

Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey

Latin

Art, Books, Comedy, Dance, Fashion, Food, Festivals, Film, Music, Parades, Theatre, Sports

Caribbean

Antiguan, Bahamanian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominica, Dominican, Grenadian, Haitian, Indigenous, Jamaican, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Kittitian Nevisian, Saint Lucian, Trinidadian, Vincentian

North American

African American, Belizian, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Guyanese, Indigenous, Jewish, Paraguayan, Peruvian Surinamese, Uruguayan, Venezuelan

European

French, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian

African

African American, Senegalese, Gambian, Bissau-Guinean, Sierra Leonean, Liberian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninese, Nigerian, Equatoguinean, São Toméan, Gabonese, Congolese, Angolan

Asian

Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Romani

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

Copyright © 2012–2023 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved. New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.