Opera Gulbenkian joins young detainees, musicians and professional singers

At the age of 26, Mathieu Pinto will make his second appearance at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, an opportunity born from the project "Opera in Prison", developed at Leiria Prison, where he is being held. The show "Só Zerlina or Così san tutte?", Which combines opera, rap and theater, which will bring together professional and amateur musicians and singers, will be on stage Thursday and Friday, inserted in the

Mathieu, who repeated with Other young detainees on the scene where he debuted in 2016, is one of four rap soloists. For him, rhymes with beat started out of prison.
Tiago Silva, 23, another of the rap soloists, also rhymed "there", where life was "singing, football and school" "only" that "n". was not as valuable as today. "For" Only Zerlina or Così san tutte? ", Both had to learn Italian -" sing in operas "- and put the voice among" several things. "

Among other things, Mathieu, such Tiago and the other inmates who will be on stage should "know the instruments, get acquainted [-se] with the sounds, the work theater, the speeches." It's because, this opera "is not "There are parts where, instead of doing the so-called recitatives, we do the same theater and that's what makes the difference in the performance."

First published by the Musical Artistic Society of SAMP in 2003, the "Opera in Prison" project worked for three years, and in 2014 it returned with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, part of the Partis program, which aims to to social integration through artistic practices.Each number – this is the third – lasts three years. e year, they know us, they learn what is classical music, we bring them instruments and teachers, and we know what is "afrobeat", "trap", "rap" and these scenes "explains the artistic director of SAMP, Paulo Lameiro, on the sidelines of the rehearsal

A year later, the SAMP team challenges:" Let's build an opera ". "In prison, we repeated with them, in Italian, they decorate a whole score, and on the outside, we work with mothers [familiares]." At the end we join this week very intensely and we present a show. Paulo Lameiro points out, however, that the show "is not the most important". "[É] The most important thing for you and for those who see, but what is important in all of this is that we are all stimulating ourselves."

In this edition of "Opera in Prison" the scene with the musicians of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, with five professional singers, with the prison officials, where they are detained, and with family and friends .

The previous opera had the participation of "60 inmates and 20 relatives". with 40 prisoners and 70 family members, mothers, girlfriends, neighbors, mayors, businessmen, who, when they receive these people, can not only receive a quota – "Let me employ half a dozen inmates"

"If you do that, you neglect extraordinary potential, these young people are very creative, very resilient, resilient to extraordinary suffering, have a life that taught them extraordinary skills. The third year of the project consists of "harnessing all this energy to build bridges with the outside."

Regarding the impact that participation in the project can have on the outside world, Mathieu is careful. "If I'm going to help or not … we'll see if anything comes up." "I liked it, it might even be in the corner. But being part of the project has already had an impact on Mathieu, especially "in terms of growth". "I think more about things before me, I'm more organized, more responsible, towards others and with myself, it has helped me a lot in this way."

Also, James "would like to work in any area of ​​the opera, in any area." "I love him more and more," he said. he said, adding that he did not know if what he had learned from the project could interfere with life "there," even though he liked it so. For those watching the show, there is a message: "It's for us to change more than them [os 19 jovens reclusos do Estabelecimento Prisional de Leiria]", says Diogo, a former participant of "Opera in Prison" at the beginning of the show. 19659002] Sentence corroborated by Paulo Lameiro. "This project has taught us that if we really want to help these young people, it's not in their transformation, contrary to what it seems, we need to change a lot more because what motivated them to be stopped would motivate everyone of us to be imprisoned, too, "he said.