The 23rd Amazonas Opera Festival will be held from June 6 to 20 with an innovative production
In this edition, the program will be entirely dedicated to works by Brazilian composers and performers. The operas “Três Minutos de Sol”, by Leonardo Martinelli, “O Corvo”, by Eduardo Frigatti and “Moto-contínuo”, by Piero Schlochauer will be premiered. The programming will be broadcast for free on YouTube and Facebook.
The 23rd edition of the Amazonas Opera Festival (FAO) will take place from June 6 to 20, with recorded operas and concerts, recitals broadcast live, webinars and online master classes, among other attractions. The program will be broadcast through the FAO YouTube channel, and also through Facebook and YouTube from the Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy.
Postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, this year the Amazon Opera Festival (FAO) has an innovative production and will be totally dedicated to Brazilian composers and performers, with three premieres on its agenda.
“We postponed the festival with the safety of our artists and the public as a priority, and we had to think of a new format that would make it possible to make the world of opera known to those who have been accompanying FAO for so many years. The pandemic has severely affected the cultural sector and that is why this edition will not have international artists and will be entirely dedicated to Brazilian composers, musicians, interpreters and technicians, to value these professionals at this time of crisis ”, declares the secretary of Culture and Creative Economy, Marcos Apolo Muniz.
Challenging production
Following the security and prevention protocols against covid-19 and its variants, the orchestras of the artistic bodies record, on alternate days, the audio and video of the works in Manaus and the soloists record the voices in São Paulo, where they are also working the scenic part. The material is then compiled and edited to bring operas and concerts to life. The groups of musicians are also reduced, in camera format, to avoid crowds and maintain social distance.
“The world is experimenting with new ways of making art in this crisis we are experiencing. After the impact of the pandemic and the postponement of the festival, we were uninspired for a while, but this idea that we had to do something, that was safe and feasible, grew, we started consulting the songwriters and got even more excited about the proposed when we discovered new names in music in Brazil ”, explains the artistic director of FAO, Luiz Fernando Malheiro.
“It is a challenging production. The operas will be like three movies, one is even an animation. Amazonas Filarmônica and Coral do Amazonas are recorded at the Amazonas Theater, by the Audiovisual team of the Secretariat in alliance with the musician Igor Jouk; then the recording is sent to São Paulo, where the material is edited with the voice of the soloists ”, he points out.
Malheiro says that FAO 2021 will not only exalt contemporary composers, but will also provide a 165-year overview of the Brazilian repertoire. “It is important to highlight the philosophy of this edition of the festival of prioritizing our artists. Many suffered and were harmed by the pandemic and that is why we decided to work only with Brazilian professionals and also with Brazilian repertoire. We will have works from the 19th century to the present, ”he says.
Operas
FAO 2021 will have three premieres: “Três Minutos de Sol”, by Leonardo Martinelli; “O Corvo”, by Eduardo Frigatti; and “Moto-contínuo”, by Piero Schlochauer. All commissioned especially for the Festival.
“Três Minutos de Sol”, by Leonardo Martinelli, will open the program on June 6, at 7:00 p.m. (Manaus time). The Chamber Opera, with a libretto by João Luiz Sampaio, addresses relationships in times of pandemic. It tells the story of three people who are in different places, each one in her house, who live and interact through social networks. The name of the opera refers to the time one of these people stands by the window waiting for the sun to shine every day for just three minutes.
Eduardo Frigatti’s work, “O Corvo” (The Raven) will be presented on June 13, at 7:00 p.m. Based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, translated by Machado de Assis, the opera will be a 20-minute illustration that narrates the haunting visit of a crow to a man who has just lost his beloved, and sees the bird as a supernatural messenger. .
“Moto-contínuo”, by Piero Schlochauer, will close the festival on June 20 at 7:00 p.m. With a libretto by Beatriz Porto, Isabela Pretti and Piero Schlochauer, the play tells the story of an inventor who is asked to build a continuous motorcycle that will take a man into space.
Recitals and concerts
The recitals will be presented in live broadcasts, from the Amazonas Theater, on June 7, 9, 10, 16 and 17, at 8:00 p.m. The repertoire will include songs by Carlos Gomes, Ronaldo Miranda, João Guilherme Ripper, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Almeida Prado, Ernani Aguiar, Osvaldo Lacerda and Francisco Mignone. The program will also feature Amazonian songs, with regional themes or by composers such as Waldemar Henrique, Lindalva Cruz, Adroaldo Cauduro, Ronaldo Barbosa, Ketlen Nascimento, Celdo Braga, Osmar Oliveira, Candinho, Altino Pimenta, Claudio Santoro, Pedro Amorim and Arnaldo Rebelo.
The concerts, which are recorded with productions in Manaus and São Paulo, will be screened on June 11, 12, 14, 15, 18 and 19, also at 8:00 p.m., with works by Fernando Riederer, Laiana Oliveira, Tatiana Catanzaro, Vinicius Giusti, Paulina Luciuk and Willian Lentz.
Webinars and Master Classes
FAO will also have educational and training actions with webinars and online master classes. The webinars will take place on June 6, 8 and 12, with the themes “Opera today, in Brazil and in the world”, “Opera theaters and creative economy in Brazil and Latin America” and “The profession of classical composer in Brazil: training, diffusion, interest, future ”.
The master classes will be held on June 16 and 18, with the topics “Composition” (“New languages, streaming – How much does it help or hinder opera?”) And “Canto” (“The art of singing in contemporary opera – Specialization? ”).
Soon the Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy will announce the registration dates.
Opera “radiografía”
The program will also feature a series of videos dedicated to explaining the artistic and technical professions of opera for children and adolescents.
Held by the Government of Amazonas – through the Secretary of State for Culture and Creative Economy and the Amazon Agency for Cultural Development – the event is being produced entirely with funds from the private sector, through Bradesco and Motorola and the Law of Incentive to Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Special Secretariat of Culture. It also has an alliance with the allegro HD channel and ZXSD Encontro das Águas and with the support of the Museo de Ciencias Catavento and Importadora Carioca.
Bradesco and culture
With hundreds of projects sponsored annually, Bradesco believes that culture is a transformative agent for society. In addition to the Bradesco Theater, the bank supports initiatives that contribute to the sustainability of cultural events that take place from the north to the south of the country, reinforcing its commitment to the democratization of art. They are regional events, fairs, exhibitions, cultural centers, orchestras, musicals and many others.
Like the Bradesco Theater, many institutions and cultural spaces supported by the bank promoted actions so that the public can continue to entertain themselves, albeit virtually, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The bank also launched Bradesco Cultura, a digital platform that brings together content related to cultural initiatives sponsored by the institution. Access Bradesco Cultura.
Check the schedule:
Opera (7pm Manaus / 8pm Brasilia)
June 6th
“Três minutos de sol”, opera by Leonardo Martinelli with libretto by João Luiz Sampaio
June 13th
“O Corvo” (The Raven), an opera by Eduardo Frigatti inspired by the story by Edgar Allan Poe
June 20th
“Moto-contínuo”, opera by Piero Schlochauer with libretto by Beatriz Porto, Isabela Pretti and Piero Schlochauer
Concerts (8pm Manaus / 9pm Brasilia)
June 11th
“Dos Flores”, by Fernando Riederer
June 12th
“Vox Populi y Virus Verbal en Miniatura Cuatro”, by Laiana Oliveira
June 14th
“Sans Rien Dire y Spaziergang”, by Tatiana Catanzaro
June 15th
“Dire è Fare”, by Vinicius Giust
June 18th
“Aria de los ojos”, by Paulina Łuciuk, poem by Alphonsus de Guimarães
June 19th
“La máquina entreabierta”, by Willian Lentz
