Nova Era Vocal Ensemble
Bellum
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Nova Era Vocal Ensemble presents Bellum, a programme that illustrates the different phases of an armed conflict. Looking at the present, the similarities with the recent past, with old books, with the stories of our parents or grandparents, are frightening. The scenarios are repeated, multiplied and perpetuated. Is peace what we're looking for?
At the beginning of the concert, voices are heard out of tune, nostalgic melodies that lead the audience to relive their own memories. The conflict begins, faces close in, morality switches off. Sadness and longing remain. People distance themselves, an indifference fuelled by fear sets in, observing events through a hidden hole in order to feed latent curiosity. Hope remains in the possibility of returning home, returning to those songs we sang and remember. We go back to the same place, singing the same melodies, as if the cycle wasn't broken.
The programme revolves around the piece Friede auf Erden, composed in 1907 by Schoenberg. A journey through states of peace, discord and hope. It explores the conflicting semantics of consonance and dissonance, as well as the contrast between serene and harsh textures. At the end of the work, we can see a return to tonality, preserving a note of hope in the peaceful communion of humanity. A few years after the premiere, having not found peace, but hatred and war, Schoenberg commented that Friede auf Erden was an illusion created in his own innocence.
The concept of the concert requires the singers not to limit themselves to the use of their voices, but also to work on their multidisciplinary skills, combining movement with music.
Eric Whitacre (1970–)
Three Songs of Faith - II.Hope, Faith, Live, Love (1999)
Seán Doherty (1987–)
Snow Dance for the Dead (2017)
Eurico Carrapatoso (1962–)
O que me diz o vento de Serpa – 1. Sombras (2000)
Alfredo Teixeira (1965–)
Quando morre um homem (2018)
James MacMillan (1959–)
A Child’s Prayer (1996)
Cláudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
Lamento della Ninfa (séc. XVII)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
Friede auf Erden (1907)
Pēteris Vasks (1946– )
Three poems by Czeslaw Milosz: III Encounter (1994)
Stephen Paulus (1949–2014)
The Road Home (2002)
Mónica Santos, ninfa
Manuel Fontão, violoncelo
Artists
João Barros, musical direction
Afonso Cardoso, declamation
Vera Livério, Laura Martins, Rita Barata, Carolina Sá, Joana Silva e Leonor Alves, sopranos
Rita Meireles, Markéta Chumová, Alexandra Costa, Rita Filipe, Sarah Keane e Estrela Martinho, altos
António Geraldo, Tiago Caldas, Tiago Guedes, Frederico Projeto, Pedro Miguel e Stephan Barnard, tenors
Francisco Cabrita, Diogo Chaves, Miguel Jesus, Henrique Coelho, João Chaves e Manuel Fontão, basses
Rita Filipe e Afonso Cardoso, texts
Diogo Chaves, translations
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“la Caixa” Foundation · BPI Bank is Patron of the 32nd edition of the Alcobaça Music Festival