The published audios correspond to Otello de Verdi and Rossini’s presentations of the tenth edition of the renowned Amazonian festival. These will also be available in the Podcast section of the main page of OLA website. More productions will be released within the next few weeks.

The opera listener and also those who want to know more about the genre will now be able to listen to the performances of Festival Amazonas de Ópera FAO recorded live. The festival opened channels on SoundCloud and YouTube with two works for the public. The content can also be found on the Amazon Culture Portal (cultura.am.gov.br), through the “Culture without leaving home” tab, on the FAO website (fao.teatroamazonas.com. br), and in the Podcast section of the main page of the Ópera Latinoamérica website www.operala.org.

The operas chosen to premiere the channels were the versions by Otello, one by the composer Giuseppe Verdi and the other by Gioacchino Rossini, presented in the 10th edition of FAO. According to the festival’s executive producer, Flávia Furtado, the project to launch the content was already in planning, however, with the suspension of cultural events and preventive trials at Covid-19, the opportunity arose to resume the process with the necessary time.

SoundCloud Festival Amazonas de Ópera

YouTube Festival Amazonas de Ópera

“This content is important not only on initiative but also to serve an audience that was already preparing to attend the 23rd  Festival Amazonas de Óperathis year, but which was postponed due to the coronavirus. The important thing is to take care of people and now this is another option to honor the event within their homes ”, says the secretary of Culture and Creative Economy, Marcos Apolo Muniz.

“We have had audio recordings of the festival since the ninth edition, when we made the Nibelung Ring, performed by Igor Jouk, musician of the Amazon Philharmonic. Over time, we were able to invest more in recording equipment that allowed for more quality. It has always been an idea to promote this digital content, however, the directors had not yet had time to evaluate these files, as there are many and they require time for analysis ”, explains Flavia Furtado.

Operas in digital format will also be sent to Ópera Latinoamérica (OLA), a non-profit organization that groups opera houses. “OLA reached an agreement with all member theaters to send digital content, and they will also broadcast our concerts on their channels,” says Flávia Furtado.

Maestro Luiz Fernando Malheiro, artistic director of FAO and principal director of the Amazonas Philharmonic, explains that the choice of works is related to the milestone of the event that presents the versions of Otello by Verdi and Rossini in the same edition. 

“I am making the selection of the works and, listening to these operas calmly, I realized that it would be worth starting with them. Otello Verdi’s is assembled more often, but Rossini is very rare, so we had the idea of presenting together in the FAO “said Malheiro. “This initiative will be another way for the public to get to know the work of more than 20 years of this festival, which is a success in Latin America. We will soon make more jobs available on digital channels, ”he says.