The world premiere of the short film “A Concubina Japonesa” and the presentation of “Videos _Pessoa”, at the headquarters of Associação Rock da Baixa-Mar, or another edition of “Poemus”, at the Álvaro de Campos Municipal Library, are some of the proposals for this week in the celebrations of Álvaro de Campos' Birthday Party which will take place until November 30th, in Tavira.
“The Japanese Concubine” is one of the initiatives that Tela Leão, president of the association Partilha Alternativa, highlights from this year's program. Taking place this Thursday, November 11th, at 20 pm, at the headquarters of Associação Rock da Baixa-Mar, this world premiere was a co-production with Brazil and Spain.
The idea arose after a performance by Tela Leão at the “Festa dos Anos de Álvaro de Campos” in 2019, by a couple of Japanese artists who were present at this presentation.
The story is “of a Portuguese ambassador who went to Japan, married a geisha and ended up staying there for the rest of his life” and is mirrored in the father of Álvaro de Campos, “who leaves his wife and child in Tavira goes to Japan and finds a Japanese concubine whom he marries when his wife dies in Portugal», explains Tela Leão in an interview with Sul Informação.
The project «has been developed since 2019» and is based on three monologues by Rudolf Engelander: the father and mother of Álvaro de Campos and Sakura, the Japanese concubine, interpreted by Pedro Ramos, Susana Nunes and Kyoko Tsukamoto, respectively.
Also on this day, the project “Vídeos_Pessoa” will be presented, produced by Partilha Alternativa and financed by the Garantir Cultura program, which “involved 25 local and regional artists”, highlights Tela Leão.
«Since 2015, we started composing new musical themes with poems by Pessoa, written by local citizens, in which we chose six of them and organized the professional recording in a studio in Olhão», he explains.
The poems by Fernando Pessoa chosen for this initiative are vacancy in blue, from my village, opium ou Love letters.
After being recorded, «these themes were distributed among filmmakers in the Algarve region to create a video for each song, inspired not by what the poem says, but by what they feel when listening to those songs», and are now presented to the public.
On the following day, November 12, there will be another edition of “Poemus”, which will take place at 18 pm, at the Álvaro de Campos Municipal Library, in Tavira. This time, the poetry will be by Alberto Caeiro, but the voice will be by Celso Candeias and the music by Zé Tenente.
They were born in Alentejo but found in Tavira «the lap and affection of an adoptive mother who unconsciously guided them to a contemplative life, awakening in them the dormant vein of creation and pleasure», can be read on the initiative's website.
This is a «poetic-musical performance that portrays Alberto Caeiro's visit to the birthday party of his half-brother Álvaro de Campos» in which, «through the creation of soft and contemplative melodies and felt interpretation», it is intended that the public «exercise the sensitivity of their five senses, not thinking about anything else, because as the audience said, “to think is to be sick with the eyes”».
To reserve your place, you can do so via e-mail [email protected].
On the 14th of November, Luís Conceição will present a challenge proposed by the organization, at 18:30 pm, at Clube de Tavira.
The artist has been composing themes that mainly reflect the spirit of the Celtic Bards and accepted the challenge of setting to music “The Mad Fiddler”, a collection of poems in English that Fernando Pessoa wrote when he was young.
Luís Conceição joins Megan Hennessy and Jan Pipal, forming The Mad Trio, a group that has already recorded two of the songs and hopes to produce a CD with all of them.
In addition to these initiatives, the city of Tavira will also host several artistic and photography exhibitions, until the 30th of November.
The rest of the schedule of the “Festa dos Anos de Álvaro de Campos” can be consulted here.
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