Portuguese opera brings Pigmalion myth to a post-apocalyptic future

Com music by Gerson de Sousa Batista, libretto by Tiago Schwäbl Martins and staging and plastic design by João Vieira Fino, the show “cross operatic language with electronic music, electroacoustic and a strong visual component”, adds a note of production.

The action is carried to a devastated future, in which “Pigmalions hunt and devour wandering Mannequins”, while a scrapper faces a silent figure that calls into question the established order born a love between both.

“ ‘Pigmalion’ recovers the classical myth in a dystopic narrative about violence, beauty and freedom”, describes the statement today released.

The show was born of an order of the FIO – Informal Opera Festival for the creation of a new work, having been selected the composer Gerson de Sousa Batista, multi-instrumentalist, director, playwright and poet, natural of Aveiro.

In the first conversations with libretista Tiago Schwäbl Martins, Sousa Baptista started from an idea that already developed for a multimedia theatre project: “A stage populated by mannequins and statues, with a single human figure”, Schwäbl Martins then proposed to “approach this universe to the myth of Pigmalion”.

In composition, classical music intersects with electronics and electroacoustics. According to Gerson de Sousa Batista, quoted in the statement, “more than a technological resource”, the intersection of electronic and electroacoustic music adds “new layers to the atmospheres created by instruments and voices”.

The creation process mobilized a group of children between the ages of 3 and 5 in a school in Vila Nova de Gaia: “From music, history and scenic elements of the first versions, they experienced masks and fragments of mannequins, drew characters and scenarios and explored the theater of shadows”, reads the note.

“ The staging is inspired by the traditional Japanese theater, in particular at the No and Kabuki Theatre, visible in the construction of the characters and in the plastic composition of the scene ", having as reference the American director Robert Wilson, notes the production.

For João Vieira Fino, responsible for the plastic design, the fact that sign language is part of the scenic proposal also works “as an extension of its own scenical expressiveness”, in addition to its accessibility dimension.

“Pigmalion” is the first production of the Cultural Platform, a non-profit association dedicated to contemporary creation, community participation and accessibility.

The opera will be sung by the contratenor António Lourenço Menezes, the soprano Sara Afonso, accompanied by the Ensemble Effect Pigmalion and the Choir Vocal Group Arsis, which brings together about 30 choralists. The musical direction is from Constance Simas.

Recites take place from Thursday to Saturday at 9:00 p.m., and on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. The sessions of 19 and 20 September have audio description, with stage recognition one hour before, and the session of 20 September has interpretation in Portuguese Sign Language.