Tiago Cutileiro

Even if it is an opera in its most classical sense, the project entails simultaneous planning of music, libretto, video projection and staging. In spite of the “non-narrative” music, “non-deterministic” score and non-discursive staging, it encourages an almost linear perception of the text as a centralising element. This libretto uses several micro-fragments from different writers/authors, so as to form a coherent talk between three characters. The fragmented nature of this production comes from the web of texts from different sources, and is enhanced by the fact that there are three directors: Leonor Keil, Sónia Baptista and Sara Carinhas. Each section of this opera is therefore performed based on a different scenic perspective, thus leading to more disruption in what’s already a thin narrative thread binding the characters. The opera has four acts and twelve consecutive ten-minutes scenes, and therefore lasts two for hours. Despite having a small group of musicians (four singers, a clarinet quartet and a string quartet), resulting in a relatively modest sound volume, this project is not a chamber opera. It is a production designed for a big stage, where video projection, real-time electronics, singing characters and set design, however minimal and/or condensed, follow the tradition of the great operas, both because of the amount of time and space involved, and because of the narrative thread.  


Tiago Cutileiro (1967) is a composer and sound artist. He has a degree in composition from the University of Évora, where he also completed his doctorate with the thesis “Opera and Non-Narrative Music” (2014). He has extensive educational experience, and lives and works in Berlin. He received the Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean Composition Award (1994) and the Young Artists 96 Composition Award. He attended composition master classes with E. Nunes, S. Sciarrino, J. Chowning, Leo Brouwer, A. Di Scipio and B. Truax, among others. His works include instrumental, electroacoustic and electronic music, sound installation, and music for theatre and film, and they’ve been played in Portugal, Spain, France and Germany.