LIEDFEST: new Classical Song Festival

From January 16 to February 2, the Teatro Variedades will be home to the 1st edition of the LIEDFEST festival that brings the richness of classical songs in new formats to all audiences.

With the artistic direction of soprano Catarina Molder and production by Ópera do Castelo, this fascinating trip includes themed recitals, staged and choreographed, a masterclass, a conversation between the philosopher Maria Filomena Molder and the essayist and translator João Barrento and lyrical jokes for future opera lovers.

The new Classical Song Festival – LIEDFEST (lied, song in German) is born of the need to revitalize the format of singing recital and piano, which has been disappearing from the main and offer differentiating elements that enhance the experience of musical enjoyment. Reinforcing the scenic character of this type of music and the emotional environments of its repertoire all recitals will have light design and subtitling in Portuguese and English, which will facilitate the understanding of the repertoire. The proposals include disciplinary crossovers with the areas of dance and theatre in choreographed and staged recitals.

The program promises great poetry, and great composers, in a small format of intense emotions including some of the great cycles of Lieder and songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Fauré, Chausson, Ravel, Poulenc, Luís de Freitas Branco, Fernando Lopes Graça, António Chagas Rosa, Granados or Crumb, Clã and many others.

The program is divided by the thematic recitals: “In the Mysteries of the Night”, evoking nocturnal and mysterious landscapes bathed in moonlight, from black sleep of despair to bohemian and euphoria of nocturnal pleasures with the baritone Luís Rendas Pereira and Pedro Lopes, on the piano; “Camões” (in collaboration with the Teatro Nacional São Carlos) celebrating the great poetry of the Lusitano genius in the voice of the half-soprano Cátia Moreso with maestro João Paulo Santos, at the piano; and “Amores e Vidas de uma Mulher” – several constellations of love and female lives with the soprano Cecília Rodrigues and the pianist David Santos.

And staged recitals, these with a greater number of presentations: “Conversations with death”, which opens this first edition of LIEDFEST, directed by the dancer and choreographer Tiago Barreiros, with the soprano Camila Mandillo and the pianist Filipe Gaio Pereira; “Five Ways to Die of Love” around the love death crossing erudite cannonade and opera, with scenic direction of the actress and director Lígia Roque and conception and interpretation of the soprano Catarina Molder and a string quartet of musicians also actors.

And also free entry events (subject to the capacity of the room and by prior invitation) among which a “New Performers Marathon”, which will stage young talents from the National Conservatory’s School of Music, a masterclass with Catarina Moreso to deepen the tradition of lyrical singing in Portuguese, and a conversation around poetry and two myths in the German Lied from a literary, philosophical and aesthetic perspective by two great names of Portuguese culture, the philosopher Maria Filomena Molder and by the essayist and translator João Barrento.

Seeking to captivate the youngest for classical music, there will be “Lyrical Games” that show the “almost infinite” possibilities with which the voice can explore sound, an activity aimed at schools and families with children between 5 and 10 years.

Life is made of songs, welcome to the Liedfest, a festival of classical songs!

Always confirm with the concert hall or promoter the conditions of access, confirmation of the date or time, ticket place of sale, price, and availability.

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