Luís Soldier crosses two arts in new “Opera Graffiti”

A opera was born from the creative core that has been producing about “one to two operas a year”, as the latest “The Supreme Art”, premiered in November last year in the same city of the district of Lisbon.

In addition to the composer Luís Soldado, this creative nucleus has writer Rui Zink, author of librettos, director Linda Valadas and conductor Rui Pinheiro, who takes the musical direction.

“ I think we should be the opera company in Portugal that produces the most original opera,” Lusa Luís Soldier told the agency.

The opera started from the wild ‘graffiti’, from when Luís Soldier walked through the suburbs of Lisbon. Rui Zink built a love story, linking the different phrases inscribed on the walls, about love, the importance of culture, the need for housing, and there was even a poem by António Aleixo (1899-1949) and a verse by French Leo Ferré (1916-1993).

“ We do not simply want to add contemporary opera to the ‘graffiti’, what we wanted to do was not simply superimpose contemporary opera with hip-hop music that is most associated with ‘graffiti’. We wanted the two of you to touch and from this experiment something new came up. And I think in a way we can, that is, if we hear the two isolated elements, it doesn't make sense. What makes sense is when the two are together in this new aesthetic that we somehow created by joining these two worlds, the hip hop associated with ‘graffiti’ and the contemporary opera”, said the composer.

The work cites the little poem by António Aleixo that says: “I don’t know why certain men, / in my view, / the smaller they are / the bigger they want to look.” Luís Soldado explained that this ‘graffiti’ is located on a wall opposite the Camarate Cemetery in the suburbs of Lisbon, “and it did seem very suitable to be in front of a cemetery where, after all, we all ended up being reduced to the same end, didn’t it?”.

The opera includes phrases and poems that were painted on walls and walls, but also only a word as “love”, for which Soldier composed.

“ I was interested in music ‘graffiti’ with just one word, because it effectively lets music breathe more. One of the problems that I think has removed some public from contemporary opera is the complexity of librettos and not so much of music; that is, in some operas it is noticed that there is an effort in the composer to put all the syllables of the text of music, and sometimes it does not seem opera, it seems that it is musical theater, that is, it seems that it is the music that is at the service of the text ", he said.

“ When we're making music for less text, the music ends up having more freedom and breathing better. And therefore, this was also a breath of fresh air for me as a composer, creating music for a strong text, but smaller, allowed to breathe much more”, he continued.

This is an “experimentalist” opera, said Soldier, who mentioned the work that anticipates his debut, “An Opera No Minute”, a program that is presented on Radio Antena 2.

“ Every Tuesday at 3 p.m., we spend a one-minute opera, referring to each of the ‘graffiti’ that we will use in this work, which is 12. Linda Valada and I present this small program where we speak a little, or the place where the ‘graffiti’ was collected or even the very idea that the ‘graffiti’ transmits. This is also an innovative process of making the work known to the public”, he explained.

In total there are 16 programs, including four episodes, whose theme is news and their librettos are authored by the writers Inês Pedrosa and Rui Zink: “It seemed to us a very interesting concept, not only exploring the radio and mixing everything, the contemporary opera, the ‘graffiti’ and the radio, but also as a way to present the opera to the public and let the last show be in the last week of its debut”.

About the ‘graffiti’ as an operatic inspiration, Soldier explained: “And now what seems to be here is that we are also part of the system and that we want to use that ‘graffiti’ cry and want to tame it as well. We don't want to do this. We want to do exactly the opposite. We want to bring this cry and this wild part of the ‘graffiti’ to contemporary opera”.

“Opera Graffiti” premieres on September 26, at 8:30 pm, at the Centre for Arts and Creativity of Torres Vedras, and returns to the same stage the next day, at 5:00 pm, then climbing, on October 30, to the stage of the Raiano Cultural Center, in Idanha-a-Nova, in Castelo Branco district.

On November 15, it is on the scene at the Beatriz Costa Municipal Theatre in Mafra, on the outskirts of Lisbon, and on November 27, in Vila Nova de Santo André, in the district of Setúbal.

The cast consists of the lyrical singers Nuno de Araújo Pereira, Inês Simões and Ricardo Rebelo da Silva, accompanied by three instruments: Angélica Fonseca in the violin, Sandra Pinto in the bassoon and Romeo Santos in the bassoon, with the dancer Beatriz Pereira.

The sound design is in charge of Pedro Pascoal.