Caminho ao Céu

This piece is not a religious work but a work about religion. It interrogates the popular view of rites and religious symbols, as manifested in festivities that often intertwine Catholic liturgy with legends of apparitions. It departs from a popular Way of the Cross and various traditional melodies that, paraphrased, contribute to the construction of the musical structure.

Scenically, we wanted it to result in an improbable Passion Play, a short opera of a post-operatic nature, inspired by the popular Ways of the Cross existing in Portugal, more specifically in the different “stations of the cross” of Sanfins do Douro, on the ascending path from the town to the mount where the Sanctuary of Senhora da Piedade is located. However, the narrative does not follow a linear approach to the various stations of the Via Sacra.

The popular melodies help build the musical structure at the level of its foundations and not at the level of immediate perception. The music is simple, direct, “lean,” stripped of very complex harmonies, in line with the nature of its thematic starting point. The piece is organized into 8 movements, into which 13 instrumental solos are integrated. Each movement, as well as each solo, is based on a line from the poem.

The dramaturgy is constructed from these lines, without following a linear progression through the stations of the Via Sacra. The guiding thread, in all movements, is only instrumental and performed by the tutti; the action of the characters is often represented without singing; the performers appear mainly at the conclusion of the movements, reinforcing the actions at that moment and operating the transition to the instrumental solos.

This improbable Passion Play assumes an abstract nature, moving away from traditional narrative, asserting itself as a space for creating worlds and symbolic states.