São Paulo – The concert hall Sala São Paulo will host an original concert in Brazil on August 12. With musicians from Morocco, Portugal and Spain, the concert Al-Mu’tamid, king poet of Al-Andalus (1040/1095) – A trip through ten centuries of music and interculturality, put into music some of the poems written by the king of the 11th century, who ruled the territory that today goes from South of Portugal to Gibraltar.
The concept and production of the concert are by the Portuguese artistic director Carlos Gomes, with the production in Brazil being shared by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, the Institute for Arab Culture (ICARABE) and Fundação Osesp (Symphonic Orchestra of São Paulo State). The event will open the 12th Arab World Film Festival and the celebrations for the 65 years of the Arab Chamber completed this month.
“This king has a very interesting personal story, biography. He held a lot of power and faced a terrible ending, dying in exile, in Morocco,” says Geraldo Campos, the curator of the concert and of the film festival. Al-Mu’tamid was born in Beja, in Portugal, and died in the Moroccan city of Aghmat. The poems written by him were in Arabic and talked about topics such as love and power.
The concert will be played by musicians and singers that will sing the poems of king Al Mu’tamid in the three languages that inherited the Andalusian legacy: Filipe Raposo, Janita Salomé and Quiné Teles, from Portugal; Eduardo Paniagua and Cezar Carazo, from Spain; and El Arabi Serghini and Jamal Ben Allal, from Morocco.
Campos says that the concert is also a visual show. “Alongside the musical part, there’s the screening of a documentary that tells the story of the king. The video shows images of where today was the territory where he was born, the cities he traveled through and where he died,” he explains.
In the year in which the Arab Chamber completes 65 years, Silvia Antibas, the organization’s Culture director, points out the support of the Chamber to the production of the concert in the city of São Paulo. “It’s a significant event. The most interesting thing is to show the the influence of Arab music in Brazilian music came even before the Arabs [that immigrate to Brazil].”
Antibas points out that the Arab sounds and instruments “are integrated to Brazilian musicality and show a dialogue between the East and West.” She also underscores the role of the Arab Chamber in closing the ties between Brazilian and Arabs in several levels. “The Chamber integrates not only in business, but also culturally.”
According to the director, the concert also aims to show other styles of Arab music, beyond those already known by Brazilian. “It’s of the interest of the Arab Chamber to present this music, sophisticated and modern and different of what the Brazilian usually identifies as Arab music,” she says.
The place chosen for the concert couldn’t be less special. It’s the first time that the concert hall Sala São Paulo will host a concert of Arab music. The event is part of a larger project by Fundação Osesp.
“It’s a concert that says a lot about our history, of Brazil and São Paulo, of today and of the past,” says Fundação Osesp’s executive director, Marcelo Lopes, in a statement. “Sala São Paulo opens its doors to an original concert, founded in Arab and Iberian roots, potentializing the flagship motive of the Osesp 2017 Season, ‘Mundo Maior’. We aim to present and explore artistic manifestations that embrace and expand, that have a dialogue with many cultures, that makes us a people and transform our worldview,” explains Lopes.
Quick info
Al-Mu’tamid, king poet of Al-Andalus (1040/1095) – A trip through ten centuries of music and interculturality
August 12, 2017, at 10 pm
Where: Sala São Paulo
Praça Júlio Prestes, 16
Tickets: Full – BRL 30,00 (USD 9.65) | Half-ticket – BRL $ 15,00 (USD 4.83). Sales on Sala São Paulo box office or through Ingresso Rápido – (11) 4003-1212 or www.ingressorapido.com.br
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
