Interdisciplinary Collaboration with Nuno Lobo and Pedro Lobo

Our performance, It Rose Behind the River, is a “virtual opera”. This format, as in traditional opera, conveys the narrative through music, however there is no physical representation of a stage, musicians, or singers. Everything happens in the audience’s mind. The only visual element that the audience can see is a video-projection that helps to give a “human voice” to the instrumentalists. This, together with visual illustrations, will help to trigger the audience’s imagination. To make this happen, the audience has to be surrounded by an opaque fabric, guaranteeing that there is no visual contact with the musicians. Those will be scattered around the created space. By doing this, the audience is fully immersed, with sounds coming from all corners.

“It rose behind the river” is an adaptation of a coming-of-age story where, in the represented world, everyone tries to run away from adulthood by walking towards a mysterious light on the horizon. The opera tells the story of two children and their journey towards this light. On this journey, they meet different creatures that share the same path and the scary expectation of growing older.