"Dina de Souza is a Painter whose keen sensitivity is reflected in her works. The works she exhibits are the result of a long work of study, research and maturation, which results in a serious and balanced work. All her works are structured in a delicate and very good design, with a watercolour of soft, harmonious tones and of contrasts, creating atmospheres full of poetry and colour. She is today a Mestre respected by her peers and has been recognized in this capacity by Pinto Soares (the late and renowned art critic), and by the (late) Mestre José Rodrigues and (late) Mestre Mário Silva and the current Mestre Ferreira Pinto." Kim Molinero (Art Curator).

This November 30th opens the natural ice rink that will work until January 12th. In Praça de D. João I, the rink opens at 10 am. On the bank holiday of December 1st, the rink will have free access during the morning until 1 pm.

Galeria Municipal do Porto opens the exhibition "9kg de Oxigénio". The exhibition is the result from the challenge launched by Galeria Municipal do Porto to the project "Uma Certa Falta de Coerência" to develop an exercise that reflects on the relationship between independent curatorial practice, self-managed by artists, and an institutional exhibition context. In this sense, "Uma Certa Falta de Coerência", which has been developing its work independently since 2008, will present this exhibition in which it will "test the production policies and ways of understanding, taking as its starting point the exercise of survival under conditions adverse and subject to institutional oppression". "Uma Certa Falta de Coerência" will transfer the atmosphere of the small space it occupies on Rua dos Caldeireiros, where air breathability is often questioned, and will feature works by artists who, over the past few years, have collaborated with the project: Babi Badalov, Daniel Barroca, António Bolota, Camilo Castelo Branco, Merlin Carpenter, Rolando Castellón, June Crespo, Luisa Cunha, Stephan Dillemuth, Loretta Fahrenholz, Pedro G. Romero, Dan Graham, Alisa Heil, Mike Kelley, Ruchama Noorda, Silvestre Pestana, Josephine Pryde and Xoan Torres.

Galeria Municipal do Porto opens the exhibition "Depois do Estouro", curated by Tomás Abreu and results from the "Expo'98 no Porto" competition project. "Depois do Estouro" was selected by an independent jury of the Galeria Municipal do Porto’s artistic team, composed by Daniela Marinho, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Miguel Ferrão, who directs with Eduardo Guerra the artistic project Musa paradisiaca, and Nuno Faria, artistic director of Museu da Cidade. This exposition arises from the effects that the socioeconomic and technological developments by the end of the last century had on contemporary culture and "proposes a reflection on paradoxes of their consequences, while challenging notions of time manipulation". It brings together a set of works, produced at the end of the last decade by 13 young artists who grew up in Portugal in the 1990s, which "focus on issues of humanity, physical space and time": Alice dos Reis, Francisco M. Gomes, Henrique Pavão, Hugo de Almeida Pinho, Igor Jesus, Jorge Jácome, Lucia Prancha, Mariana Rocha, Mariana Vilanova, Pedro Huet, Rodrigo Gomes, Sara Graça and Tomás Abreu.

The exhibition marks the 30 years of the Foundation and the 20th anniversary of Museu de Serralves, presenting the programme of the Performing Arts Service between 1999 and today. It was born and developed through compromises between seemingly irreconcilable objectives: on the one hand, the need to present concrete data (names, dates, images) that showed where, how and when certain artists performed, and mirrored the pioneering character of the importance given to the performing arts by Serralves; on the other hand, it translates what seems to immediately distinguish these arts: the implication of the spectator, the eminently collaborative spirit, the "here and now" as opposed to "this was". The compromises included by putting on display documentation and letting its visitors know who has performed in Serralves (and when, how and where), while presenting elements that evoked the “here and now.” The documentation was incorporated through a process of collaboration: once the programmers Cristina Grande and Pedro Rocha selected the images and words that best illustrated the last twenty years of their programming (between stage photography and graphic materials that announced and accompanied the activities), it was commissioned to a graphic designer, Luís Teixeira, to create a book that would never be published, whose pages would be exclusively presented on the walls of Biblioteca de Serralves, along with the recordings of shows and props to which these programmers considered to be of special importance. At the same time, it was decided to occupy a considerable area of the library’s mezzanine with an object that would immediately evoke the idea of theatre and could "trigger" the viewer: a small stage waiting to be occupied. The visitor can and should sit down to read (programming texts, key books to understand the performing arts today) and, most importantly, to hear testimonials and memories of spectacles written by people especially attentive to Serralves' performing arts programming - between artists, musicians, writers and current or former directors and programmers of theatres and music and performance festivals - and then read by two actors. These testimonies came to reconcile the irreconcilable: the memories of certain shows, or of concerts and performances - necessarily subjective, incomplete, fragmentary - constitute the necessary counterpoint to data, dates, chronologies, documentation. It is largely thanks to them that this exhibition is not just about "what it was"; it is also now, and it is also here.

A series of attractions and amusements will liven up the place until January 12th. Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque, popularly known as "Rotunda da Boavista", again this Christmas becomes the “Praça da Fantasia” (Fantasy Square)! All the kids, as well as grown-ups, are invited to have fun in the various attractions that will be installed on-site between November 30th and January 12th. In addition to a covered ice-skating rink and a snow slide, there will be merry-go-rounds, bumper car tracks, a magic train, simulators, traditional games, a mini Ferris wheel and even a Santa Claus’ House. On the bank holiday of December 1st, the rink will have free access during the morning until 1pm.

From 30th November onwards, Christmas magic takes over the city of Porto. Streets, squares and gardens will light up and the whole city will be filled with new colours and an even warmer and more welcoming environment. Every weekend, we invite you to come out and enjoy the most beautiful season of the year with your family. Christmas fairs and markets, natural ice rinks, circus, dance and theatre shows, music concerts, itinerant choirs, workshops, Christmas tales, activities for children and lots of street entertainment will set the pace of the city during the next five weeks, with a programme as bright as this season.

5 seasons is a project by photographer Júlio Aires. This project, made up of four 35mm black and white and colour analog photographs, will be simultaneously exhibited in four commercial establishments in the “Invicta” (Porto): Câmaras & Companhia, Cano Amarelo, Embaixada do Porto and Miprint. These places are of great importance to the author, not only because it is where he buys analog photography products, but above all for the quality of services and friendliness that characterises them. 5 seasons is, then, a tribute from the author to the people who make these establishments, places of choice.

Entering the new year sets the tone for a concert where the famous Strauss dynasty had to be present, represented by its second generation, the brothers Johann, Josef and Eduard. An indispensable tradition in Viennese ballrooms, dance orchestras have also inspired composers from other places, such as the Danish Hans Christian Lumbye - nicknamed the “Strauss of the North”. Conductor Takuo Yuasa lived and worked in Vienna and was closely familiar with a tradition that attracts thousands of visitors from around the world and gave rise to the famous New Year’s concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic. Casa da Música also kick-starts 2020 with the right foot, the left foot and the whole body taken over by the rhythms of waltzes, polkas and galops.

The arrival of the New Year is celebrated at Coliseu Porto Ageas on January 4th with a concert that has already become a tradition of the city. One refines the attires and the greetings, the traditions and the superstitions, the balances, the dreams, the delicacies, the pyrotechnics and, of course, the music. The New Year's Concert by Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa blows to the audience the spirited breeze of the Strauss family’s polkas and waltzes that we all know whether from ballet or cinema. The show will feature a fantastic orchestral overture by Stanisław Moniuszko, dotted by Gioachino Rossini's melodic charm and exquisite humour. Relaxed and informal, and in keeping with tradition, we will welcome the talent of conductor Sebastian Perłowski and enter 2020 in the best way possible.

Spontaneous and popular fair where you can buy birds, food and cages. Even if you do not want to buy anything, you can enjoy the singing birds, their colour and the liveliness of the fair. When passing through the fair, one must take a look at the breath-taking view of the Douro River and its bridges.

A gathering place for various collectors, this fair has as purpose the sale and exchange of coins, postcards, stamps and other related collectibles. It takes place under the arcades of the buildings surrounding the square.

The first recital of the Piano Cycle brings to Portugal a girl prodigy of only 12 years old who has been acclaimed in important festivals and concert halls. Her interpretations reveal surprising maturity, stunning technique and deep sensitivity, winning over the judges of international contests such as the I Grand Piano Competition in Moscow, for young pianists, which won before the age of 11. A native of Russia, Alexandra Dovgan is the protégé of the famous Grigory Sokolov and has performed in concert under the direction of conductors such as Valery Gergiev and Vladimir Spivakov.

Twice a year, Teatro Municipal de Porto welcomes Companhia Nacional de Bailado, were it not for the Rivoli’s Grand Auditorium where it was presented the first show in 1977, even before its official debut at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. Companhia Nacional de Bailado-CNB comes to Porto, sometimes with contemporary creations, as was the case with the revivals and original composition choreographer by Tânia Carvalho, in the 2018 season, sometimes with a classic and modern repertoire, in a patrimonial logic and constantly updated, core missions of this company. The programme now shown is a triple bill, three short pieces by Hans van Manen. The Dutch choreographer is known for the strong structure and refined simplicity of his compositions. From melancholy based on Beethoven's romanticism in “Adagio Hammerklavier”; the elasticity for Jacob Ter Veldhuis's avant-garde score in “Short Cut”; to the satirical chromatism of “In the Future”; CNB's virtuosos dancers bring to us in their bodies this relevant choreographer in dance history. "Adagio Hammerklavier" is recognized worldwide as one of the twentieth century classic masterpieces. This is a piece for three pairs of dancers, choreographed on Beethoven 's piano sonata, no. 29, opus 106. It is regarded as Hans van Manen's most lyrical and academic ballet and reflects a lucid and analytical view of the emotional oscillations that occur in ordinary life. Throughout the piece, feelings alternate between passion and unrequited desire, attraction and revulsion. Created in 1999, “Short Cut” is a piece for four dancers. Hans van Manen is inspired by Jacob Ter Veldhuis's score and takes advantage of the tone, rhythm and poetry of this work. The choreography follows the rhythm of the music, the basis of this dance which, focusing on the pas de deux, reveals its extraordinary elasticity. Originally choreographed for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam in 1986, “In The Future” is an energetic, entertaining and surprising piece created for twelve dancers featuring David Byrne's music and Keso Dekker's costumes.

We are familiar with the irreverence of João Garcia Miguel's stage creations. There are, for instance, his bold treatments of Shakespeare in Burgher King Lear (2007) or Calderón de la Barca in La Vida Es Sonho (2015). Now, he returns with A Plan of the Labyrinth, adapting a text written by Francisco Luís Parreira (in what is already the fourth joint creation by their “close and durable relationship”), to whom the reverberation of the historical situations or the old texts he chooses acts as a revelation of what we are today – he is responsible for an amazing Portuguese translation of the Babylonian poem The Epic by Gilgamesh, one of the oldest texts in the world. After Lilith, which looked at the crisis in Greece / Europe, Três Parábolas de Possessão, filled with biblical references and the Israeli-Arab conflict, and a free version of Medea, Um Plano do Labirinto is a polyphonic mythological tale about the twentieth century Portuguese diaspora, in the Orient and in Africa, questioning itself/us about the truth and lies of many collected stories in “our” war “overseas”. One of them, quite remarkable in its "indifference to the truth," tells of an immaterial confrontation between soldiers in patrol and a herd of antelopes in the unexplored savannah. “Why do these stories lie so deliberately?”

The official opening of the Theme Country features sacred works by two leading French composers. Written while Messiaen was still a young man, in 1932, the score of Hymne au Saint-Sacrement was lost during World War II and the composer took on the herculean task of rewriting it from memory. The monumental Berlioz's Te Deum demands an orchestra and a chorus of gigantic proportions, including an organ that competes almost on equal footing with the exuberant orchestration. The soloist will be Cyrille Dubois, a French tenor who has gained great experience at the Atelier Lyrique of Paris Opera and where is regularly invited to perform. In 2015 he was named Lyric Revelation Singer of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique awards.

The return to one of the most fascinating countries in the history of music takes us on a journey through various ages, from the Middle Ages to the present time. In addition to the in-house ensembles of Casa da Música, will be on stage special international guests such as pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, conductors Sofi Jeannin and Hervé Niquet, and tenor Cyrille Dubois, as well as the National Choir of Spain. The programmes include remarkable works such as Berlioz's Te Deum and Messiaen's Les Oiseaux Exotiques, among many others by important figures such as Debussy, Ravel, Charpentier and Boulez. Do not miss the beginning of Philippe Manoury’s residency with the first three of several works that will be premiered in Portugal throughout the year. The Education Service presents a new performance inspired by the French writer Jules Verne that will entertain the whole family. Also keep checking for the special programming that will be announced in due course for this opening programme of the Year of France, which spans various music genres.

There are phenomena whose success is undeniable. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare in 97 minutes are an example of this and have led many families to the theatre, who admit to having more than "97 laughs" throughout the show. With adaptation and direction by António Pires, humour and topicality are characteristics of the play, with various references to trivial and “digital” themes of Portuguese daily life, along with the (re)acknowledgement of 37 works by one of the greatest playwrights in world history, William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare in 97 minutes “travels” through the tragedies, comedies, historical plays and sonnets by the most famous and influential English playwright, proving that “To be or not to be” is not a question when it comes to the phenomenon that this show is since its premiere in 1996!

January 10th at 9:30 pm at Igreja Stella Maris: - Coro Carmelitas Stella Maris – The Host - Orfeão da Foz do Douro - Academia de Danças e Cantares do Norte de Portugal - Coro da UCP - Grupo das Janeiras da Paróquia de Aldoar - Grupo Danças e Cantares São Martinho de Aldoar January 11th, at 5:30 pm, at Auditório de Cristo Rei: - Coro de Cristo Rei - Orfeão da Foz do Douro - Coro São João da Foz - Escuteiros Agrupamento 484

The Remix Ensemble begins the Year of France with three generations of composers and a great pianist from that country. One of the greatest figures of the twentieth century, Olivier Messiaen composed several ground-breaking works exploring musical material derived from birdsongs. In Les Oiseaux Exotiques, he brings together American and Asian birdsongs. The pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is a reference soloist of this favourite piece of the general public and with it inaugurates his artistic residency at Casa da Música. This concert opens the retrospective of Philippe Manoury's work, one of today's most important French composers, but the programme's latest work belongs to Christophe Bertrand, a composer who was destined to become a lasting reference of contemporary French music but who died in 2010, at the age of 29.

Former chief-conductor of Maîtrise de Radio France and currently chief-conductor of the BBC Singers, the prestigious conductor Sofi Jeannin returns to Casa da Música to present a fascinating journey through the history of French choral music. From the 14th century to the present time, the programme includes key works from the Medieval and Renaissance periods, with the famous Guillaume de Machaut and Clément Janequin. The medieval poetry of Charles, Duke of Orleans sets the tone for songs by Debussy - the only songs he wrote for a cappella choir. Manoury's most recent work is one that draws inspiration on the distant past, using philosophical texts of Ancient Greece that turn out to be surprisingly modern, within an imposing score for three choirs.

Hailed by the press as the voice of the new generation of flamenco singing, Rocío Márquez is one of the greatest references of contemporary flamenco. With a prodigious voice, a hard-earned career and a solid education, she has been honoured with important awards. Her restless personality and enormous curiosity are evident in her discography, which shows across the board a great love for the flamenco tradition as a pressing need to push the its boundaries. Rocío Márquez comes to Portugal to present her new album Visto en el Jueves, a critical reflection on the concept of authorship through a repertoire that softens the gap between flamenco and non-flamenco, between singing and song.

The title Dialogues de l'ombre double is from Paul Claudel's play Le Soulier de Satin, a drama that tells the story of an impossible love and explores the dialogues between earthly and heavenly characters. The piece was written in 1985 by Pierre Boulez on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of another great composer, Luciano Berio, and is presented here in its original version for clarinet and magnetic tape. Also, from France comes to us an early piece by Gérard Grisey that includes excerpts with multiphonic sounds - two simultaneous sounds produced by a single wind instrument. Hugo Vasco Reis and João Pedro Oliveira, prominent figures in Portuguese composition, also explore the dialogues between instrumental and electronic dance music.

“Little B”, the new creation of Visões Úteis, is designed, written and directed by Ana Vitorino, Carlos Costa, Mário Moutinho and Sara Barros Leitão, taking over and broadening the collaborative dynamic that is the company's trademark. Inspired by the professional biography of Mário Moutinho, Associated Artist at Visões Úteis during the 2018/2019 season, the performance declines, however, an archival or documentary perspective: what matters is not so much Mário's life, but rather the plurality of lives that one life can contain; not so much the life he lived, but rather the life he still has to live; not so much what he remembers (or is remembered for), but rather the memory shortcuts, inaccuracies, and traps that become clear when one tries to archive a life. Above all, more than what Mário did, what matters is what he dreamt and failed to do, because that's where we all come togethrt: the protagonist of Dumas / Sartre (“Keane”) which he never played, Próspero, surrounded by puppets, which he never played, the drum solo (“Little B”, The Shadows) he never played.

We welcome 2020 with Western Society, a homely odyssey, where 21st-century civilization fits completely into a living room. It's a must-see opportunity for Teatro Nacional de São João’s audience to meet the Gob Squad, an artist’s collective founded in the 1990s in Nottingham, England, but currently operating from Berlin, Germany. They inhabit a territory where banality coexists with utopia and where one’s physical presence is amplified by digital technologies, tools that they have optimized to bring the real world of everyday life into the artificial world of theatre. In Western Society, they reenact on stage a home video of a family reunion. This device, which calls on the active participation of spectators, reveals the most luminous and obscene corners of contemporary culture. Yes: loneliness, consumerism, the search for alienated forms of intimacy, the charm of pop songs, the obscenity of reality shows, the Internet as heaven and hell. Western Society is a dysphoric series of windows that open and close, from the theatre stage to a smartphone screen, from the largest to the smallest. Has the world shrunk? Is this happiness?

Eugène Green's first feature film is loosely inspired by Gustave Flaubert's First Sentimental Education. Toutes les nuits was written in 1994, shot in 1999 and distributed in 2001, making it a unique case of critical reception that recognised the great originality of Green's film debut (receiving the prestigious Louis Delluc Award for best first work). Set in 1967, the film focuses on the paths of two childhood friends (Henri and Jules) who spend their last summer vacation together. By the end of adolescence, their lives are about to diverge, Henri will leave for Paris to pursue his academic training, Jules will remain on the countryside. Their sentimental relationships, their first love affairs, and the platonic passion one of them has for a woman he has never seen, develop against the backdrop of intense epistolary exchange. With the outbreak of May 68, the geographical separation of these two friends, which we can also see as split of the same personality, will also be an emotional, experiential and political separation.

A house that is too small and in it a man who is too big. Another house that is also too small, and in it a woman who is also too big. They live near each other, borrowing sugar, tea, a vacuum cleaner, the odd egg, old family photographs or a piece of wall from one another. They seem perfect for each other. But living with someone else is not as simple as it seems.

After founding it in the past season, TNSJ wants to consolidate the steps taken to create a Drama Club, in order to make it a space where young people under 18 who feel attracted by this art will be welcomed, encouraged to stay and learn. Under the guidance of Nuno Cardoso, Nuno M Cardoso and Emílio Gomes, the improvisations to which young people will be challenged are the starting point for a work around Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Chrysalis is the process of growth, colour definition and sexual differentiation of butterflies. Inside the cocoon, during this process, colour explosions occur and it is the only time when they don’t move or move a little. Struggle, resistance and persistence are key words in this performance. The dialectics of this work is related to the demystification of gender categories, based on the existential issues of Nietzsche, Sartre and Goffman. The being as an individual, social being and the creation of new concepts that foster the discontinuity of human nature are issues that interest the creator to dwell in this piece. By analogy, bringing to the stage a polysemous aesthesia where circus technique, video and some fine arts experiences are used, in order to raise other meanings and new sensations in renewed enigmas.

Filled with sensuality, colour and power of suggestion, Debussy's Prélude à l'Après-Midi d'un Faune, based on a poem by Mallarmé, has attracted audiences of many generations since its premiere, in 1894. This programme illustrates different stages of French musical trajectory since then, with pieces by three of the most leading composers. We will hear Pierre Boulez’s Rituel, written in the 1970s in memory of Bruno Maderna, in which he takes advantage that the musicians are distributed in eight separate groups on stage. Closing the programme is Philippe Manoury's Sound and Fury premiere in Portugal, one of the most important French composers of today, whose work is in retrospect in Casa da Música’s programming throughout 2020.

New York, 1970s. Tish and Fonny are two young African Americans in love and full of hope for the future. When he is unfairly arrested on charges of rape, the couple sees their world crumble. Sometime later, discovering that she is pregnant with their first child, Tish makes a decision: find a way to prove the judicial error that put her boyfriend behind bars so that he can watch the birth of the child in freedom. Directed by Barry Jenkins (responsible for the three-time Oscar-winner "Moonlight"), a dramatic film about injustice and prejudice that is based on the novel with the same name by James Baldwin.

I met Shantala Shivalingappa in 2008, backstage at a theatre in Dusseldorf, where she was a guest of Pina Bausch. That's when it all came together in a really powerful way. aSH is the final opus in the trilogy of portraits of women started ten years earlier with Questcequetudeviens? (2008) and followed by Plexus (2012). In this trilogy, I do not take space as a starting point, which is my usual theme in theatre, but a woman, a person with a story, a living being who reveals herself through dance. Shiva, the god of dance, dwells in Shantala Shivalingappa. According to the texts, Shiva has over a thousand names. He is a god of creation and destruction. Ash is not merely the solid residue of perfect combustion, it is here a process. It is part of a cycle of birth and death that starts from nothing - the beginning of any form in the theatre - and leans towards an ephemeral form before it disappears. Shantala's dance resembles a kolam, a drawing made on the ground using flour in the morning, destroyed by the wind during the day and made again the next day. Circles, points, symmetries, spirals, fractals ... her dance seems to be a representation of the very structure of the world. In aSH, a title made up of her first and last initials, I would like the space to have a whole rhythm. I would like space to begin by expressing itself as a vibration, which is then picked up, transformed and extended indefinitely by percussionist Loïc Schild. Shantala's dance is based on her journey from India to Europe, from kuchipudi to Pina Bausch, from Shiva to Dionysus, god of theatre, who some say descended from the same god. Shantala is always traveling between Madras, where she was born, and Paris, where she lives. Her dance is a perpetual pendulum, much like our encounter: somewhere between the Hindu mystique and quantum physics. - Aurélien Bory

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi was born in Iran in 1978. He started learning tombak at the age of 6 and by 9 he already mastered the instrument at the same level of the greatest masters. As a child, he won the annual Iranian tombak competition, where only the best performers are evaluated. At the age of 20, he already seen by many as one of the best tombak and daf (traditional Persian percussion instruments) Players. He earned an infamous reputation among the most canonical Persian percussionists by coming up with over 30 new techniques for playing the region's traditional instruments while selling out Tehran's concert halls. He has become a major figure in the “roots music” circuits, playing at major festivals over more than two decades. In 2017, he released with Burnt Friedman the EP Yek; in 2018, another EP, this time solo, by the Portuguese record label Padre Himalaya; and in 2019, LP Ritme Jaavdanegi by the French record label Latency. These three releases proved to be crucial in introducing his rhythms to the universe of electronic, experimental and dance music avant-garde. Mohammad Reza Mortazavi is one of those rare musicians capable of bringing together the so often estranged concepts of avant-garde and tradition. With just his hands, he produces what could only be expected from a small percussionist ensemble, processed and polished by the most meticulous sound engineer.

Catarina Machado's art presented in “Sentir o Oceano” (temporary exhibition - Sala Multiusos) arouses emotions and inspires participation in this workshop. The construction of a light box and the use of senses lead the thought to dive into the sea of imagination, challenging the creative ability of children and adults and promoting the sharing of sensations, always with a lot of fun into the mix.

Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música and Coro Casa da Música perform alongside one of the leading specialists in French Baroque, conductor Hervé Niquet, founder of the prestigious early music ensemble Le Concert Spirituel. In his debut at Casa da Música, he conducts a programme entirely dedicated to one of the greatest masters of French music, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, especially famous for his extensive vocal production. Written in the last decade of Charpentier's life, Missa Assumpta est Maria is considered one of his masterpieces, written for solo and choral voices and orchestral accompaniment. The famous Te Deum, which includes an extended instrumental ensemble and whose initial prelude was used as the opening theme music of the European Broadcasting Union and the Eurovision Song Contest, could not be left out.

~In medieval Japan, a permissive governor is sent into exile. His wife and their two children try to join him but are cruelly separated. While the mother is forced into prostitution, the children, Anju and Zushio, are sold into slavery to the tyrant Sansho and grow up amid suffering and oppression. Years later, Zushio is a tough man, but his sister Anju has not forgotten their story.

The Planetário do Porto - Centro de Ciência Viva (planetarium) is providing virtual expeditions to the sea of the Azores, within the scope of the iSEA science communication project, led by Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto (FCUP). Open to people over 18, this virtual reality experience has free-of-charge access, by prior registration, and aims to enable the exploration of ecosystems during a "mission" of about one hour. The public’s access to the "journey" is the result of the iSEA project, and aims to create a set of contents and messages about deep-sea ecosystems for scientific communication and to develop a non-intrusive, valid and replicable method in places like science centres and museums. The exploratory study has an emphasis on the themes addressed by the AIR Centre – The Atlantic International Research Centre, in the Azores, in particular on the sustainability of deep-sea ecosystems.

With a precise clinical language, made of mysterious and erotic details, “The Virgins Suicides” directed by John Romão, written by Mickael Oliveira, is a creation inspired by the text of the same name by Jeffrey Eugenides and the text “Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls” by Frank Wedekind. Played by Luísa Cruz, Vera Mantero, Mariana Tengner Barros and teen gymnasts. The performers are confined to an all-female space, living a routine, strict life, they engage in physical education, theatre and dance, in an apparently idyllic environment. There is something disturbing about the walls of this place: apart from the girls enduring absolute isolation, away from the rest of the world, their submission to a harsh physical discipline arouses in each one of them violent urges of annihilation. “The Virgins Suicides” targets the repressive nature of education, a dystopian call to arms, marked by the arrival and death of the adult body.

Virgile and Blanche exchanged glances briefly on the dance floor of a party. They did not introduce themselves, do not know each other, do not exchange a word, but from that moment on, Virgile falls madly in love with Blanche. Shy, he gets her email address and writes her a message. But not only does she not remember him, she loves someone else, Eustache. In the same context as Madame de La Fayette's The Princess of Clèves, the progressively developing love relationship between the two correspondents takes on a depth that is somewhat at odds with the contemporary way of living, but love will triumph and will take the best over the rejection. This medium-length film portrays a love triangle in the age of electronic communication and marks Eugène Green's debut on digital media. The film is also the result of the invitation of the Jeonju festival in South Korea, as part of the collective feature film Memories (Jeonju Digital Project 2007), a project which, that year, also collaborated Pedro Costa and Harun Farocki. Julie de Hauranne, a young French actress who speaks her mother's native language, Portuguese, but has never been to Lisbon, arrives for the first time in this city, where she will shoot a film based on Gabriel de Guilleragues' Letter of a Portuguese Nun. Strolling around the city during the shoot breaks, she becomes fascinated by a nun who prays every evening in the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Monte, at Alto da Graça. During her stay, the young woman has a series of brief worldly encounters who, like in her previous existence, seem fleeting and inconsequential. They are characters a little lost, torn by the ephemerality of love, multiple and fragmentary. But one night, Julie talks to the nun who, in a state of grace, tells her of one and incorruptible love that will finally make sense to her life and her destiny.

After the release of their new album "Cause and Effect", the British Keane confirm the dates and cities of their European tour to present their new work, which kicks-off in early 2020. Having as starting point Brussels, the tour arrives in Portugal on January 25th with a concert at Coliseu Porto Ageas. "Cause and Effect" is the successor to "Strangeland", released in 2012, which includes the singles "Disconnected" and "Silenced by the Night". The birth of this new album came as a surprise even to the band. Tom Chaplin already has two successful solo albums, but missed his sparring partner, Tim Rice-Oxley. “I found myself wondering how I had come to let this very enigmatic and important relationship in my life drift,” explains Tom. Meanwhile, Tim was going through his own struggles. At that time, he realised that he had written an album with incredibly personal songs, fuelled by humour as well as pain. When Tom, bassist Jesse Quin and drummer Richard Hughes heard the songs, they were immediately drawn to them sonically and lyrically. From then on, the band went back to the studio to do what they really liked, bringing these songs to life and creating a connection again. As Tim Rice-Oxley points out, "We have a lot of great music in us." “Cause and Effect” is just that.

PAUS announce the presentation of the newly released YESS live, for the first time in Portuguese lands, after returning from the Brazilian tour in December. The positive concert, supported by Antena 3, is scheduled for January 25th at Hard Club. With nothing to prove and everything to try, PAUS has so far always been a band saying "why not?". 10 years, 4 albums, 3 EPs and multiple tours across various continents, leave the Lisbon quartet in a positively new place, at a time when, for every new challenge and opportunity, the answer seems to have evolved to “YESS”. After an inspiring visit to S. Paulo and several collaborative experiences, “YESS” is positively a PAUS album, the band that changes by nature and after 10 years remains fearless to risk, to laugh at itself and to change. The early released single of the same name which shows them linked to the Lisbon’s energy with a shameless finesse, adding to the city's flavour a rock weight that only sounds like PAUS. The album features the collaboration on modular synthesizers arrangements by the Brazilian Grass Mass's. This work of electronic textures has helped expand the imagination of what a PAUS album can be - from Lisbon’s dance floors to dark punk rock clubs, from rodas de batuque in the streets of São Paulo to the raves in Berlin.

Whoever passes by from 10 am to 7 pm will find a wide range of items: handicrafts, clothing, antiques, organic products, books, toys, and more.  As it takes place outdoors, this market always depends upon favourable weather conditions. 

Following its triumphant premiere in London, Dvorák's Seventh Symphony set itself in the repertoire as a fundamental piece descending directly from the great symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms. The influences of Slavic folklore, greatly explored by Dvorák in other works, fade here to give way to the composer's inner world and universalism, revealed in imaginative instrumentations and the brilliant treatment of the musical material. An ambitious piece, dark and marked by dramatic intensity, explained in this concert by Daniel Moreira, using musical examples performed by the orchestra before its entire interpretation.

A woman lives with her two children (one, still a child, the other, a teenager) in a small fishing village in the French Basque Country. Her husband, a fisherman, mysteriously disappeared more than five years ago, but she doesn't settle for it. Like an indefatigable lighthouse keeper, she lights a candle every night that she puts in the window in the hope that she can guide the return of this lost Ulysses home. The eldest son, tired of waiting, decides to look for his absent father, interrogating several of those who worked with him. In the course of this quest, he meets a mysterious man who questions him about his origins. The same man who will still hear the confidences of his mother who asks if, after so long, he would still be able to recognize her missing husband. Alexandre is a prestigious architect who has just won a major award. At the height of his career, he decides to leave with his wife, Alienor, for Italy where he intends to write a book about Francesco Borromini's life and work. Their relationship has seen better days and Alienor is well aware of this. One day, strolling near the Lake Maggiore, they casually meet Goffredo and Lavinia, two siblings in their late teens. She is ill, he will soon begin his academic training in architecture, and the accidental encounter soon becomes a good excuse for the separation of the couple. Alienor will be in Stresa taking care of Lavinia, Goffredo will depart with Alexander on a tour of the Borromini buildings between Turin and Rome. The work of light in the works of the Baroque architect reveals to Alexander the necessity of rekindle his life and his marriage. And that is why at the end of this trip to Italy, armed with renewed wisdom, the miracle always comes to pass.

It's been 40 years since the electronic work For Amusement Only, made exclusively with pinball machine sounds. Classics such as Struggle for Pleasure (1983) and Maximizing the Audience (1984) soon followed. In the subsequent decades, Wim Mertens refined his language, composed for various instruments and ensembles and established his name on the international music scene with regular recitals in the best concert halls on the planet, performing solo, in small ensembles and accompanied by an orchestra. To mark this important milestone properly, he released the quadruple CD Inescapable, in November, with 61 compositions - including some of his hits, live recordings and unreleased pieces. This is the motto for a world tour that naturally includes Portugal, one of the countries that has welcomed the Belgian composer since practically the beginning of his career.

Brecht said that margins are as "violent" as the violence of the "river that drags everything" because they confine it. Margin, directed by Victor Hugo Pontes, tell us of a similar violence, associated with young people at risk in the periphery of life, like the characters in Jorge Amado's Captains of the Sands (1937), a book that inspired him and was a “guide”, here deconstructed and reconstructed here by Joana Craveiro’s writing. The dialogue between Victor Hugo Pontes’ choreographic language and the book a second layer was laid, that of the life stories, collected in a previous research, of children living in institutions such as Casa Pia and Instituto Profissional do Terço, and also a third one, consisting of the memories and experiences of the performers themselves and the process of creating the show - all these layers interweave in the original text behind this performance. A cast of kids, aged from 14 to 20 years (plus a dancer and a professional actor) inhabit the stage-house-shelter, mattresses scattered across the floor, the (dreamed?) oasis of a palm tree, as a vital space for the preservation of oneself in a group, a family, even. Margem, a production midway between dance and documentary theatre, moved by an urgent and tribal soundtrack, is admittedly a "very political" work. Racism, sex, revolution and death also appear, but there is a vibrant energy running through Margem, and that energy persists and endures.

Faire la parole is Eugène Green's first foray into the documentary genre, a portrait of the mysteries and idiosyncrasies of the Basque territory and the way it is shaped by its own language, euskera. This language, of obscure if not mythical origin, is fundamentally used verbally. At the same time that it imposes a vision of the world, language defines a country that crosses borders, giving cohesion to an entire region and its people. The film focuses on a group of young people of Spanish nationality and French nationality, especially on three teenagers who begin a journey through the mountains and their own identity.

Clube Ilusionista Fenianos hosts from January 31 to February 1, the Festival de Ilusionismo «S. João Bosco» 2020. The event that has been held for 61 years in this city is open to Porto, its visitors and the general public. January 31st, Opening and Magical Get-Together, at the Clube Fenianos’ Bar. February 1st, Clube’s Noble Hall – PRESTIDIGITATION GALA