FULL Tamanduá – A Brazilian Opera (MacDowell) Montclair 2009
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Tamanduá - A Brazilian Opera
- Composer: MacDowell João
- Libretto: Joao MacDowell Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair, New Jersey, Montclair State University, John J Cali School of Music
- Recorded: December 11, 2009
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Vocal Ensemble
- Conductor: Jeffrey Gall
- Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble
- Stage Director: Jeffrey Gall
- Stage Designer: Cila MacDowell
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: João MacDowell
- Date Published: 2010
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Program Notes by Prof. Jeffrey Gall:
Tamanduá is conceived as a meeting place, whose physical symbol is water: the frontier between land and sea, the boundary separating New York from Rio, the mysterious source of life and (as blood) death. The opera’s protagonists bring their hopes and desires, fears and prejudices to a series of encounters, as their fates cross at the water’s edge. A larger spiritual context surrounds their experience, relating the plot to the African Brazilian religion of Candomblé and the native shamanic rituals of Pajelança. The role of the chorus oscillates between the realistic (dance-hall crowd) and the hieratic (the witches).
Deriving archetypes from the indigenous animism, the opera assigns an animal soul to each of the characters. These spirits are not merely symbols, like the Orishas, or patron deities of Candomblé, they lend the protagonists special characteristics and guide their fates. Carol is perpetually in flight. Julia is a mother as well as a lover. Pedro is a quicksilver and predatory figure; Aruanan, earthly and direct.
Aesthetically speaking, Tamanduá is a trans-cultural hybrid. It is sung in English, Brazilian Portuguese and various indigenous tongues. The libretto employs a wide range of tone from slang to soaring lyricism. The music embraces elements of classical modernist compositional techniques, Western pop, Brazilian popular styles (samba, bossa nova, baiao) and indigenous chant.