As sombras de uma azinheira

As Sombras de uma Azinheira is an opera in three acts, totalling 12 scenes. The libretto is by Eduarda Freitas, based on the homonymous novel by Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio, with music by Amílcar Vasques-Dias.

With three characters on stage, the opera spans 51 years from the day of April 25, 1974. Through a structure that allows us to travel through time, we are confronted with the personal stories of the characters, which are, in fact, completely influenced by the country’s history.

The night of April 25, 1974, is the starting point for this opera, which introduces us to Catarina, João Aurélio, and Honório. Among them, so many other lives are touched, witnessed, or simply intuited.

Catarina presents herself with a sorrow as vast as her life: her very name and the day she was born. The revolution and her birthday are intimately linked, yet disconnected from Catarina. The day is merely a date that bothers her.

João Aurélio, a man of the red carnation, guards the past like that day forever frozen in memory, eternally waiting to be fulfilled. And he seeks to achieve madness, more than life itself.

Honório tries to reconcile Catarina and João Aurélio with the present, and always seeks to remind them of that 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, questions freedom and norms, and confronts us with the shackles of the past.