Composer: Nuno Côrte-Real
Librettist: Mário João Alves
Comic opera in one act
Date: 2016
Language: Portuguese
Duration: 70 minutes
Small-scale
Ludmila: soprano
Raskolnikov: baritone
In a time when image has taken over our senses, when one wins or loses by a single kilogram or a mere centimetre, almost nothing remains untouched by this filter. Success in any artistic, administrative or customer-facing profession is subject to the whims of the scale and the measuring tape. It is this metaphor that is presented in The Dietary Dilemmas of a Middle Matryoshka. We follow the case of Anna Enzimoskaya, who lost her place as a middle matryoshka when an emotional shock led her to seek compensation in food. Within a matter of weeks, her silhouette expanded to the point that she could no longer fit into her place within her matryoshka family.
The opera begins at the moment when Anna seeks the help of Dr Alexey Vegetiev, the best dietician in Moscow. Suddenly, she loses her place in the world, and nothing is more important to her, because her job, her self-esteem — in short, her life — all depend on her silhouette. It is through this professional relationship, gradually becoming more intimate and probing, that we come to discover Anna Enzimoskaya: disillusioned with men, with the evolution of the world, with the precariousness of modern bonds, and with the haze of days that pass without whispering anything to her.
As so often happens, in the forgotten floors of a building on a city avenue, life passes above her head, being decided in the luxurious offices of the upper floors, where employees arrive with their gym bags and appointments already booked for their next non-invasive liposuction. Such is Anna Enzimoskaya, a middle matryoshka, staring into emptiness as she places herself in the hands of Dr Vegetiev and his renowned dietary programme.
Cl | Vc | Pf
Since its inception, the Quartet has defined as its guiding principle a commitment to the valuable work of Portuguese creators and performers and, maintaining this tradition, the new project we present to you is yet another result of that commitment. It is a comic opera in one act, in the Singspiel genre.
Following the model of its most recent project, A Querela dos grilos, the Quartet maintains the same approach, once again assigning all instrumentalists on stage an active role as performers, while ensuring constant interaction with the audience throughout the performance, this time going even further by involving groups already established within local communities.
The work can be adapted to different spaces, although the lighting design requires certain specific conditions.
Date: 2016
Venue: Teatro do Campo Alegre, Porto
Commission: Quarteto Contratempus
Stage direction: António Durães
Cast: Teresa Nunes, Job Tomé, Crispim Luz, Susana Lima, Brenda Vidal Hermida
