Operafest Lisboa 2022

American Evening

Labyrinth (National Premiere) & A Hand of Bridge

Gian-Carlo Menotti & Samuel Barber

Inedited

27 e 28 AUG | 21h00

Garden of Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Operas in 1 Act

Length: 60m

Sung in English

An American evening proposing two operatic pearls by longtime companion composers Italian/American  Gian-Carlo Menotti and American Samuel Barber. After the remarkable success of Menotti’s Medium production in its last edition, Operafest Lisboa committed to revealing more about this fascinating composer, presents in national premiere Labyrinth (1963). Created to be exclusively presented in cinema or tv format, this intriguing opera - an operatic riddle as the composer himself called it, evokes the labyrinth of life and of destiny and its unexpected paths to unravel. The promised happiness is devoured by life’s obstacles and disenchantments in a story about a fresh married couple lost in a hotel corridor who can't find the key to their room. Searching for help, they meet all these bizarre characters who manipulate them without giving the so desired answer, until the tragic ending. A symbolic evocation of human existential questions still waiting for an answer and the path to the unknown that life itself represents.

The second operatic dish of the evening, the jazzistic brief opera A Hand of Bridge, is after all a pretext to unravel our feelings and occult desires with which, we permanently live, during an apparent hand of bridge between two couples.

Musical direction: Tiago Oliveira
Stage direction: Bruno Bravo
Set Design and Costumes: Inês Peres
Light design: Pedro Santos
Stage direction assistance: Joana Campelo

Cast:

Labyrinth
Groom: Tiago Amado Gomes (baritone)
Bride: Cecília Rodrigues (soprano)
Spy and administrative: Ana Ferro (mezzo-soprano), Maria Velez, Laura Baptista and Teresa Correia, actresses
Chess player, astronaut and Italian singer: Alberto Sousa (tenor), Diogo Mazur and Gonçalo Cotrim, actors
Receptionist: Natacha Esteves, actress

A Hand of Bridge
Geraldine: Cecília Rodrigues
Sally: Ana Ferro
Billy: Alberto Sousa
David: Tiago Amado Gomes

Ensemble MPMP