Constança Capdeville: Entre o teatro e a música

"This text discusses the thesis Constança Capdeville et le théâtre musical au Portugal. La voix contemporaine (University of Paris 8, January 1997). Through the analysis of works by Constança Capdeville, it aims to establish reasonable parallels between these and the forms of staged music creation of the 20th century, specifically theatre/dance, performance art, multimedia, sound poetry, and contemporary opera – forms to which compositional and aesthetic research in the domain of musical theatre has made significant contributions. Thus, the composer's works have been integrated into the recurring processes of the genre: relationships between text and music, systematic use of citation and allusion, unconventional vocal techniques, and the use of absurdity, contradiction, irony, paradox, and contradictions; signs of the influence of philosophical ideas, poetry, visual arts, and the aesthetic movements of major predecessors: Camus, Artaud, Steiner, Schwitters, Müller, Kafka, Joyce, Dali, Bausch, Cunningham; and composers such as Mozart, Debussy, Brahms, Varèse, Satie, Cage, Kagel, and Aperghis. Beyond emphasising how Constança Capdeville positioned herself within the artistic trends of her time, the text highlights her commitment to new forms aimed at creating new types of communication with audiences, in an aesthetic linked to what was then "contemporary music”, which are paradigmatic of today's theatrical/music spectacles."