LIQUID VOICES

A POSTOPERA?

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection about the cinematic opera Liquid Voices: a história de Mathilda Segalescu (Liquid voices: the story of Mathilda Segalescu), by the Brazilian composer Jocy de Oliveira, based on concepts borrowed from studies on contemporary performing arts, among them the term postopera proposed by Jelena Novak, with all the implications towards the relationship body-voice in a post-dramatic context. In this discussion we also approach the mutual influence of opera and cinema on the development of these two languages during the twentieth century, as well as certain aspects of intertextuality in post-modern aesthetics or, as Guy Scarpetta puts it, a aesthetics of impurity. After a brief contextualisation of Oliveira’s music-dramatic production in Brazilian concert music in the last decades, we seek to identify elements in her opera that could qualify it as a postopera. The goal here is to contribute with the understanding of contemporary opera by an interdisciplinary approach, gathering theoretic elements from music, theatre and cinema.