“As sombras de uma azinheira” is an opera in three acts, with a total of 12 scenes. The libretto is by Eduarda Freitas, based on the novel of the same name by Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio, and the music is composed by Amílcar Vasques Dias. The production is directed by Mário João Alves and performed by the Ritornello quintet, with musical direction by António Ramos. The soloists are Tânia Ralha and André Henriques and Hugo Brito also appears as the radio man (violinist-narrator).
With three characters on stage, the opera ‘As sombras de uma azinheira’ spans 51 years since 25 April 1974. With a structure that allows us to travel back in time, we are confronted with the personal stories of the characters who, in fact, are completely influenced by the history of a country – Portugal.
The night of 25 April 1974 is the starting point for this opera, which introduces us to Catarina, João Aurélio and Honório. Between them, so many other lives are touched, witnessed or simply intuited.
Catarina is presented with a heartbreak the size of her life: her name and the day she was born. The revolution and her birthday are intimately linked but disconnected from Catarina. The day is just another date that bothers her.
João Aurélio, the man with the red carnation, treasures the past like that day stuck in his memory, forever unrealised. And he seeks to achieve madness rather than life.
Honório endeavours to reconcile Catarina and João Aurélio with the present, always trying to remind them of this utopia that makes the world move.
Often in a more introspective register, ‘As sombras de uma azinheira’ is an opera that makes us delve into our convictions, that questions freedom and norms, and that confronts us with the ties of the past.
It’s a work that interweaves music, history and emotion, travelling through the complex layers of identity and memory, with a strong reflection on freedom, the past and the longings for a future that never quite arrives.
At the end, as at the beginning, there is a question that echoes throughout the piece: what is the weight of our name?

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)