Palestinian Violence Comes to Life in a New Portuguese Opera

I recently saw, in the lovely port city of Setúbal Portugal, one of  the first performances of a new opera Eu So Alma (I am Alma), with music by João Malha, libretto by Diogo Faro, and staging/sets/lighting by Maria Madalena and Iolanda Rodrigues. I have a bit of a conflict of interest here, as Mr. Malha is also the conductor of the medical orchestra in which I play in Lisbon. 

The opera was an uncompromising, passionate indictment of the Israeli occupation and violence in Gaza, proclaiming its anti-war stance openly. For example, the words "murder" and "genocide" came up often; this would be difficult to perform in the US or some other western countries, where censorship has become more common than in Portugal. Performed in Portuguese, this one-act opera was a powerful, raw experience with an excellent musical score. 

The opera is the telling of how a Palestinian family is destroyed by Israeli bombing in Gaza. There is a brief opening scene showing domestic life. I wish this had been a bit longer, especially since it did not really introduce any of the family members as three-dimensional characters. This would have been helpful, so that we really care when bad things happened to them later. They interact at home, then go to a festive dance, which is interrupted by a violent bombing attack. Several family members die or are buried in rubble, and their newborn baby is decapitated. During this prolonged sequence of violence, there is no music, only taped broadcasts of bombs, sirens, gunshots, etc. Large cloths drop from the sky to cover the fallen bodies, simulating the destruction of the building. This was dramatically effective, but I think the tragedy could have been even clearer; for example as the dead baby appeared at the front of the stage for a prolonged period, but was not very realistic from my seat, just a barely-visible naked plastic doll. Rescuers arrive. There is extended singing about the tragedy of Gaza. In the end, the surviving family reunites to sing a gentle closing ensemble, but we are denied a stereotypical operatic catharsis by hearing the superimposed sound of machine guns and bombs during the finale, chillingly ending the opera. 

Most of the opera's dramatic and musical core comes from Alma (the name translates as "soul"), one of the  family daughters, powerfully performed by soprano Constança Melo. She had a fine dramatic voice, and while her music was mostly declamatory without true aria form, it was consistently dramatic and emotional, and never seemed just like recitative. There were also well-written, but less dramatic ensembles and solos for other family members and for the rescuers/EMT personnel. The musical style was pleasantly dissonant, typical of much music of this century, and made good use of sting sonorities and a wide dynamic range. 

The musical score made effective use of recurring motives, beginning with a gloomy descending orchestral Phrygian modal scale that recurred throughout the opera. Equally effective was the ending ensemble, set to a theme of two descending major fourths. When I heard this I first thought of the identical intervals used by Wagner for the Knights of the Grail processional march in Parsifal. That reference would have been on point, since the Grail motive signifies Redemption, and the ending of this opera, after all the violence, gave a suggestion of redemption for humanity. But it turns out that this motive is also the beginning of the Palestinian national anthem, but shorn of it's martial/military rhythm. Intriguingly, this anthem is titled "My Redemption". By using the notes of the anthem (or of Parsifal!) but in a gentler, more even rhythm, Malha brilliantly transforms this Redemption theme into the motive of a gentle farewell. I also admired how Mr. Malha effectively underlaid soprano vocal writing with rich string chords, rather like Richard Strauss did.  

Composer Joao Malha faced some challenges in this libretto. While impassioned, too much of the text was generally descriptive of the violence done to Palestinians, rather like a news editorial rather more than an operatic dialogue. I wanted to hear more of the tragedy conveyed in the words and experience of of the victims themselves-- more first-person rather than third-person perspective. As often occurs in political plays/artwork, the political points were made a bit too often, and became repetitive. So this text could have used some editing, especially in the latter part of the opera. That said, the composer did well with this challenge. He avoided the temptation to match the descriptions of bombing and killing with unrelieved violent music, instead choosing to keep the music more gentle and compassionate. I think this was a good choice. Verdi-like hysteria and storminess would have been too much here, I think, given the traumatic subject being addressed. 

The choice of orchestration also aligned with the compassionate theme. The small string orchestra played well under conductor Jorge Salgueiro, and the string writing was idiomatic and effective. Vocally, the composer's writing flattered the voices, including beautiful ensemble and solo writing that was varied and consistently interesting. I wish the libretto had given Mr. Malha more opportunity for dramatic range. For example, in the extended bombing scene the orchestras and singers go quiet, and we instead hear only taped warfare sounds. While superficially more jarring and immediate, I think this choice deprived the composer of the opportunity to show how music can express war and violence. Think of the destruction of the temple in Saint-Saens' Samson et Delilah or many of the symphonies of Shostakovich. A lesser critique was that I also wanted to hear some original music during the dance scene just before the bombing, rather than just taped pop music. Maybe I am conservative in this, but I think that opera should be largely spoken, sung, or played (mostly sung), with only limited use of taped resources. 

Overall this was a visceral and engaging musical experience. All those involved in this project should be applauded for bringing such a vital issue of our time to vivid dramatic life. I hope that Eu Sou Alma can be performed more widely, as it deserves a performance life, especially given the current troubled state of our world.