Criticultura em Portugal

After moving to Portugal, I wondered what I would need to do to see English language theater, other than fly to London. Well, it turns out that there are at least a couple of good English language troops in Lisbon, mostly featuring Portuguese actors who are fluent in English. I saw one doing Sartre’s Huis Clos ( aka No Exit) last week. I vaguely remember reading this play in college, mostly as an example of existential philosophy. So I was expecting some tough, dense sledding. Not so! Done in an updated translation that included modern social references (social media, WiFi, etc), this was a very accessible play, not at all heavily philosophical. The crisp direction and three talented young actors created a lively evening that never lagged or became enmeshed in philosophic navel-gazing. The play, depicting three recent arrivals in hell, was performed in a dingy, deconstructed small classroom in the dark, gloomy National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon. You had to walk ...

Benjamin Britten's eerie chamber opera  The Turn of the Screw  (1954) is a ghostly,  underperformed opera by one of Britain's greatest composers.     The 27 May performance in  the small auditorium of the Belém Cultural center strongly communicated the creepy essence of the work. The opera is based on a Henry James 1898 Victorian-era novella about ghosts "influencing" (translate: sexually abusing) two children at a spooky English estate. Britten's opera is filled with ghostly effects like devilishly transformed versions of innocent childrens' songs, and remarkably explicit seductive behavior by Quint, a male ghost who still yearns for the the 10 year old boy he abused while he was alive and working at the estate. The libretto by Myfanwy Piper is very loyal to the James novella, yet is operatic in giving ample opportunities for the leads to shine, in particular the Governess who oversees the children and the menacing male ghost Quint who relentlessly pursues...

My review of Sunday's classical concert of the Chamber Orchestra of Cascais and Oeiras (occo.pt) will be colored by dryness...of the acoustics at the community auditorium in the Lisbon suburb of Carnaxide. It's hard to truly evaluate an orchestra when they play in such an acoustically dry venue. How dry, you ask? Think the Atacama desert, Lake Powell in the US, or the dark comedian Anthony Jeselnik. In this venue, a robust timpani strike at the end of a movement decayed in about 0.01 femtoseconds. There was no resonance. Why is this a problem? For the audience, we hear no bloom from the strings or piano, and any ensemble imperfections are clearly audible...amplified, really. For the performers this can be terrifying, since you often cannot hear yourself or other sections on stage, and there is little or no "feedback" acoustically on your performance. Scary.  This chamber orchestra (about 22 strings) seems technically accomplished and, like other Lisbon area ensembles,...

My first impressions of the classical music scene in Lisbon are very positive. I have seen three concerts, including by two I'll discus today done by tow of the three (!) major symphony orchestras in Lisbon. Each concert was well played and invigorating, easily matching the quality I am used to in NYC.  The Gulbenkian Orchestra programs 25+ concerts per year, mostly orchestral standards, and often involving a resident chorus. They play in a beautifully set hall, with a glass wall behind the orchestra, providing a beautiful forest backdrop to the music.  The orchestra skews to young Portuguese players (as do the other groups I have seen), likely reflecting a robust music training program in Portugal. The orchestra's conductors have changed frequently (I'm not sure why). The current (and new) conductor is the Finn Hanna Lintu, conductor of the Finnish National Opera. This leadership bodes well, as Finns like Esa-Pekka Salonen have been recently dominating the classical conduc...