Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro to Present World Premiere of ‘Requiem Guarani-Kaiowá’
By David SalazarBrazilian composer Cyro Delvizio’s “Requiem Guarani-Kaiowá,” op. 33, will receive its world premiere on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, nearly a decade after its completion.
The 70-minute symphonic-choral work, with a libretto by Gabriel Neves Camargo, will be performed by the Petrobras Symphony Orchestra under conductor Felipe Prazeres, with more than one hundred musicians, singers, and children on stage. The work brings together four vocal soloists, including soprano Michele Menezes, mezzo-soprano Noeli Mello, tenor Guilherme Moreira, and bass David Monteiro, alongside the Brasil Ensemble and the UFRJ Children’s Choir, prepared by chorus master Zezé Chevitarese. The performance will be accompanied by projected photographs of the Guarani-Kaiowá people.
Rather than setting the Latin liturgy, Camargo’s libretto is written in Portuguese and interwoven with Guarani deities, concepts, and cosmology. The work was conceived in response to a 2012 declaration by the Guarani-Kaiowá community of Pyelito Kue, whose leaders announced they would rather die than abandon their ancestral lands. It was written without commission, funding, or guarantee of performance, and a planned earlier production was canceled before the work reached the stage.
“Composing a Requiem is already a huge responsibility. Imagine mixing two cultures, trying to bring us closer to the Brazilian native worldview — deep, refined and attuned to nature. That’s what inspired me most,” he said, per an official press release. “This Requiem is a roller-coaster of emotions — pain, grief, rage, and finally relief in the In Paradisum, with words of peace but also a call to take responsibility for our actions in the face of the climate threat. I never set out to compose a piece this size. It simply grew, because the subject mattered too much.”
Additionally, Delvizio’s third opera,” Monologue: Santos Dumont,” is set to premiere at Rio’s Cidade das Artes on Oct. 23. Camargo, who collaborated on the libretto, is a playwright, psychiatrist, and scholar of comparative religion whose play “A Ufania do Pecador” won the 2005 Funarte Playwriting Prize.
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