Exploratory Operas
The Mozart Pavilion at Estabelecimento Prisional de Leiria – Jovens (Prison)
©SAMP – Joaquim Dâmaso
The Sociedade Artística Musical dos Pousos (SAMP) is an independent music school in Leiria, central Portugal, with an exceptionally strong community music programme for everyone from babies to people at the end of life. SAMP musicians have been working in the city’s youth prison since 2004, first as volunteers, and more recently with funding from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, which supported the production of Mozart operas in 2015 and 2017. The TRACTION trial builds on that experience through the co-creation of a new opera, written and composed by professional artists with inmates, relatives and staff members, using the Co-Creation Stage technology to link people in real time, inside and outside of the prison during performances in Lisbon and Leiria. The Portuguese Traction project trial combines the most elaborate and complex musical genre with a service for the rehabilitation of young inmates.
The Mozart Pavilion Centre for Performing Arts
The Mozart Pavilion Centre for Performing Arts
The Mozart Pavilion is located inside the grounds of the Estabelecimento Prisional de Leiria – Jovens (EPL-J) youth prison in Leiria. Originally, the newly renovated space of the Mozart Pavilion inside the prison was for binding books. With this activity no longer available, the pavilion was given another purpose, and with it, another name. After singing so many of Mozart’s pieces from operas such as Don Giovanni and Così fan Tutte, it seemed appropriate to name it the Mozart Pavilion. It has become a dedicated performing arts and rehearsal space for SAMP and the inmates.
In January 2021, the doors to the Mozart Pavilion opened for the first time, marking a momentous occasion for SAMP who have been working for years to create a space dedicated to music inside the prison walls. The goal is for it to eventually become a centre for performing arts with permanent shows, open not only to inmates, but also to family and friends and to the wider community. More than just a room for cultural enjoyment in Leiria, the Mozart Pavilion will be a place where the young participants of the project will be able to experience collective artistic creation, adding sounds and images to their words, and expressing their feelings and ideas. In January 2021, the Mozart Pavilion was inaugurated with a performance using the Co-creation Stage tool to enable a real-time performance from three locations.
Highlights from this special event can be seen in this video, demonstrating the first experiments using the Co-creation Stage tool as well as a work-in-progress version, which is being developed iteratively in the project.
The inauguration of the Mozart Pavilion
The inauguration of the Mozart Pavilion
“Nós. Vocês. Toda a gente” (Us. You Guys. Everyone)
Community opera poster & Images from the 1st performance of “Nós. Vocês. Toda a gente.” © SAMP – Joaquim Dâmaso
Together with the SAMP, the inmates created the community opera “Nós. Vocês. Toda a gente.” (Us. You Guys. Everyone). Two pilot performances of the community opera were held in June 2021: the first, inside the Mozart Pavilion within the EPL-J prison in Leira; the second, in the grand auditorium of the Gulbenkien foundation. The performances served as an opportunity to integrate and test the Traction Co-creation Space tool, linking rooms inside the prison with the people performing on stage in real time so that they could perform together. You can read more about these performances in a blogpost François Matarasso – “Learning the right lessons”.
In the video below—courtesy of Portuguese broadcaster Sic Notícias and the Gulbenkian Foundation—you can enjoy some of the performance highlights and hear interviews with the Portuguese trial participants.
Co-creation to close the opera’s libretto and structure
July-October 2021
During these months, the librettist, Paulo Kellerman, worked on the creation of the story with various groups (inmates, relatives, prison community and artists). Taking the words “DOOR” and “JOURNEY” as a starting point, games of creative writing and theatre design were made using a “wall of paper” where the entire creative process of ideas was recorded.
Musical composition
October to Decembre 2021 & January 2022
When an opera libretto is written, the librettist is considered “the first composer”. As words, accents and syllables give melody and tempo. Because of that, during the months of November and December 2021, they corrected and adapted the text to a final version. After that, the three composers decided which parts to write. These composers —Francisco Fontes, Nuno da Rocha and Pedro Lima— were inspired by the many meetings they had with the prison community of Leiria. They are now in the final phase of writing the score. Everyone is invited to sing, suggest ideas, comment and, in dialogue with the young prisoners and their families, be an active part in the weaving of the final 2022 opera.
Sheet music from ”Nós. Vocês. Toda a Gente”
Joaquim Dâmaso
Rehearsals and micro shows
January- May, 2022
Six intense months of drama rehearsals, singing, score reading and integration of technologies have been held. Professional musicians drawn from across the Orchestral Universe, have come to the prison to play for and with the participants. In March, we held 2 micro-performances looking to show the artistic process to the internal and external communities.
Final performances in Leiria and Lisbon
June 2022
In June 2022, O Tempo (Somos Nós) was performed inside the prison with an audience of prison inmates and staff, followed by a second event, again in the prison, but this time opening its doors to the community of Leiria. It was an opportunity for the family and Friends, the prison community and the Traction consortium to see what had been achieved in nearly three years of preparation.
O Tempo (Somos Nós) Leiria, Portugal © Gil de Lemos/SAMP
O Tempo (Somos Nós) Lisbon, Portugal © Photos by Joaquim Dâmaso / SAMP
These performances were followed by two performances to the general public on the main stage of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
On 6 June, 2022, Traction and the Gulbkenkian Foundation co-organised the international conference Building Capabilities: Rethinking the Social Value of Culture, which was held in Lisbon.
Alongside representatives of the Traction project’s partner institutions and its coordinator François Matarasso, the conference brought together guests from other entities working in the field – such as Luís Sousa Ferreira (23 Milhas and Teatro Nacional D. Maria II), Maria Vlachou (Acesso Cultura), António Miguel (Maze), Ana Rita Barata and Pedro Sena Nunes (Vo’arte) – to reflect on how participatory art can help develop individual capabilities and talents, and strengthen human rights.
At the end of the conference, a concert by the professional artists involved in the Opera na Prisão (Opera in Prison) project was given.
Building Capabilities: Rethinking the Social Value of Culture
June 2022
International Conference at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
Prioritising the Ancient Art of Listening | Art and Community Notebook N.03 – Vanessa Rodrigues
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/PARTIS invited Journalist Vanessa Rodrigues to write the third volume of their “Art and Community” notebook series. Divided into seven chapters, the notebook summarises the ideas and practices discussed at the “Building Capacities: rethinking the social value of culture”, hosted at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on 6 June 2022.
“Prioritising the Ancient Art of Listening” reflects on experiences encountered, and emphasises “the social value of culture in building community capacities”, where discourse, action and civic participation shape policy to create a place of individual and collective transformation.
François Matarasso (coordinator of the Traction project), Valentí Oviedo (Gran Teatre del Liceu), James Bingham (Irish National Opera), Paulo Lameiro (Sociedade Artística Musical dos Pousos), Luís Sousa Ferreira (23 Milhas and Teatro Nacional D. Maria II), Maria Vlachou (Acesso Cultura), Ana Rita Barata and Pedro Sena Nunes (Vo’arte) are some of the conference participants cited in this publication. Building on the example of Traction and the creation of community operas in prison, the testimonials shared prove that technology can be a valuable resource in these processes and underscore the importance of culture and artistic-community co-creation in encouraging listening and promoting equality.
