A LAUGH TO CRY – a New Op-Era project
WNMD 2025 #11 | 02-06-2025 · 22h00
O’culto da Ajuda

Miguel Azguime · libretto, music
Paula Azguime · staging, sound projection

Pedro Neves · conductor
Camila Mandillo · soprano
Andrea Conangla · soprano
André Henriques · bass baritone
Miguel Azguime · speaker
Jade Mandillo · speaker

SOND'AR-TE ELECTRIC ENSEMBLE
Sílvia Cancela · flute
Nuno Pinto · clarinet
Vítor Vieira · violin
Jorge Alves · viola
Luís André Ferreira · cello
Francisco Cabrita · piano
João Dias · percussion
Miso Studio
Andre Bartetzki · live electronics, technological direction
Perseu Mandillo · VFX & 3D, photography

"A Laugh to Cry" is a scream for freedom against tyranny, against the omnipresence of arrogance and injustice, against oppression, against the destruction of the Art.

The opera explores some of the essential concerns of human beings in the context of a globalized world, in a speculation on the hegemonic power of destruction of memory, of humankind facing the devastation of the Earth.

The opera develops on the border between dream and reality, between the visible and the invisible, between laughter and tears.

"A Laugh to Cry" with music and multilingual libretto by Miguel Azguime (Portuguese, French, English, and several other languages) is a metaphysical theatre that puts eternal archetypes to music, staged by Paula Azguime.

The interpretation involves five characters, represented by two sopranos, a bass and two narrators (woman and man); seven acoustic instruments: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion and electronic media in real time.

The staging is based on multiple video projections built in symbiosis between music and text.

Programme notes and more info at: https://www.misomusic.me/wnmd2025-calendar/20250602-5