Geraldo & Samira – uma ópera para Évora

So much before…

So much after…

This is how the opera Geraldo & Samira begins – in the Prologue by the Coro Eboræ Mvsica with the tutti orchestra – where the different peoples who inhabited this territory before us are sung.

The fictionalised story of Geraldo & Samira is set in the mid-12th century, when the threat from the kingdom of Portugal to the Gharb Al-Andalus was growing, and the arrival of Almoravid and Almohad tribes to the south of the Iberian Peninsula shaped the first policies of exclusion and intolerance, forcing Jews and Mozarabs to seek refuge in the Christian kingdoms of the north of the peninsula.

Those were very troubled times.

Afonso Henriques, Ibn Arrik Al-Bortuqali, the 1st king of Portugal, had already managed to push the kingdom’s border down to the Tagus Valley and transferred his base of operations to Coimbra, where he sought to gain the support of the Mozarabs (Iberian Christians living under Muslim rule in Al-Andalus) and wage a war of attrition in the Alentejo that included fossados (raids) with his cavaleiros-vilãos.

Geraldo Geraldes, the opera’s main character – lived in a castro (hillfort) near Yabura (Évora) – would have been one of these cavaleiros-vilãos (neither noble nor a serf) in the society of the time. Due to the success of his assaults (fossados) on towns in Al-Andalus and his desire to serve D. Afonso Henriques, rejecting the “Andalusi” culture, Geraldo managed to gather a considerable number of Christian followers.

Geraldo “Sem Pavor” (The Fearless) has psychological and social characteristics of the anti-hero, and/or a certain charisma through which he gains the approval of his followers, even while committing illicit acts. His goals are considered just, or at least understandable.

Centuries of popular narratives may have helped transform him into a legendary figure in Portuguese history where the ends justify the means.

Samira, the other main character, is used to living with different people and cultures. In the opera’s first scene, she attends an evening of music in the fortress (alcáçova) featuring Christian, Mudejar, and Hebrew chant, while her maid Yasmina shows knowledge of the Christian liturgy practised by the Mozarabs. It is in this openness of behaviours that Geraldo sees an opportunity to profit from his relationship with Yasmina and kidnap Samira, the daughter of the governor of Yabura, later using her as a bargaining chip to take the city.