The savoury aroma of empadinhas “ small pies of pastystuffed with a sweet or spicy filling “ greets one as one opens the door toLeopoldina de Figueiredo’s quaint shop near the civil court in Margao.Figueiredo who is in her eighties, says she does not like to stay idle and thereforebusies herself with her shop, gives cooking classes and has a published cookerybook to her credit.
These are but achievements that get dwarfed when compared toher shimmering career in singing and music. “Music runs in the family, and fromthe time I was small, I sought to sing,” she says. She studied in PresentationConvent and later began to teach there. “It was then that Fr Camilo Xavieropened a school near my house and I taught there,” she says. Figueiredo’suncle, Maestro Antonio de Figueiredo, who was the founder of the music academyin Panjim took her to Panjim where she began to learn to sing underprofessionally-trained teachers. At the same time she enrolled at the lyceum.She also began singing with the Symphony Orchestra. The audience was taken upwith her voice. “That time, there was a scholarship programme from Portugalthat was notified at the academy for students who were exceptional in music,”she reminisces. The then governor of Goa Vassalo e Silva made a good report forher and sent it to Portugal. “I waited many months for a response but none cameuntil that October. I was selected and I could go either to Portugal or Rome. Ichose Rome and landed there in November 1959,” she says.
Though she was homesick in the first year, she worked hardat her music. “My difficulties started in 1961 when Goa was liberated and thePortuguese cancelled my scholarship. I had no money and did odd jobs such asbaby-sitting,” she recounts. She was also part of a choir which travelled tomany countries in Europe. Amidst all the difficulties which included a brokenleg, she completed her diploma in 1965. But she did not have the money to comeback home; this filled her days with sorrow. She returned to Goa in May 1965and began teaching at the music academy. “I like all kinds of music but notloud music; my favourite song is One day at a time,” she concludes.
