Join us for a peak at Suzanne Farrin's forthcoming opera, Macabéa! As part of the opera's ongoing development process, Talea will publicly workshop final scenes from the opera on Wednesday, May 7th at 2:00 PM at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew (Brooklyn, NY).
Macabéa is an evening-length opera for six voices and chamber ensemble based on Brazilian-Ukrainian author Clarice Lispector’s 1978 final novel, The Hour of the Star. This public showcase is the opera's final developmental workshop before its upcoming concert premieres in the US in the 2025/26 season and a fully staged premiere in Brazil in summer 2027.
Farrin’s Macabéa is the first time the celebrated novelist Lispector’s work will be set as an opera. Macabéa occupies a unique space as an opera written by a woman composer to a woman’s words. The opera will be sung in the Rioplatense dialect of Spanish spoken in parts of Argentina and Uruguay, with English supertitles. The story disrupts historic tropes regarding poverty and marginalism by creating a titular character Macabéa who, while living in poverty, embodies an empowering inner freedom.
Brazilian-American conductor Eduardo Leandro will lead Talea in the performances, with two-time Grammy nominated baritone Christopher Herbert headlining as Rodrigo. The cast for the May 7th workshop also includes vocalists Samatha Sosa, Charlotte Mundy, and Gregório Taniguchi.
