Talea Ensemble Opera Workshop: Suzanne Farrin's 'Macabéa'

• Eduardo Leandro, conductor

Macabéa is an opera by Suzanne Farrin based on Clarice Lispector's final novel, The Hour of the Star (1978). It is an electro-sonic operatic experience with film and music that examines the cultural, psychological, and spiritual manifestations of poverty and power. Join us on Thursday, February 8th as we unveil scenes from a Macabéa in a free workshop performance!

A Ukrainian-born Brazilian author, Clarice Lispector's work disrupts historical tropes regarding poverty by creating a character who is miserably poor yet strangely free. Young Macabéa lives in Rio's slums, barely existing, loving hot dogs, and spending time with her repulsive boyfriend. Macabéa goes to see a fortune-teller. As she arrives another client is running out crying hysterically. The fortune-teller explains that the woman will be killed by a hit-and-run, but that Macabéa will soon meet a rich, European boyfriend who will give her furs. But the seer's signals were crossed: as Macabéa steps onto the street a yellow Mercedes barrels down and strikes her. As she dies, the passersby do not see that her blood is a beautiful color red. In this operatic adaptation by novelist Sergio Chejfec, the narrator is a film director who, rather than observe Macabéa's death from a distance, builds a conspiracy to the climax of the fortune-teller's misreading. Chejfec's adaptation propels the novel to the stage by moving Lispector's plastic narrative voice into a conspiracy to murder.

Talea will premiere the work in Portuguese in the 2025 season at the Theatro São Pedro in São Paulo.

About Talea Ensemble

The Talea Ensemble's mission is to champion musical creativity, cultivate curious listeners, and bring visionary new works to life with vibrant performances that remain in the audience's imagination long after a concert. Recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the New York based Talea Ensemble has premiered more than 45 commissions since it was founded in 2008. Festival engagements have included performances at Lincoln Center Festival, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Resonant Bodies Festival, TIME:SPANS, Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Time of Music Finland, Wien Modern, Vancouver New Music, Festival Musica, and many more. The ensemble has also partnered with institutions across disciplines, such as the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the City of Ideas Festival in Mexico, and the Storm King Art Center, and has undertaken residencies in music departments around the country to support a new generation of musicians.

About Eduardo Leandro, conductor

https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/music/people/faculty-and-staff/performance/eduardo_leandro