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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. Development and the US premiere is supported by the Consulate General of Brazil in New York. Video documentation is sponsored by the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater by the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in association with The New York Foundation for the Arts. The workshop is also supported by the Frayda B. Lindemann Endowed Chair Fund and Elebash Hall at the C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center. Macabéa received development in The American Opera Project’s First Chance program for new works. The commission of Macabéa was made possible with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, and in part through an award from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Suzanne Farrin: Macabéa (excerpts)
Macabéa Artistic Team
Suzanne Farrin, composer
Sergio Chejfec, librettist
Talea Ensemble, performers
Christopher Dylan Herbert, Rodrigo
Eduardo Leandro, conductor
Noelia Quintero, filmmaker
João Luiz, musical consultant
Graciela Montaldo, libretto consultant
