We close the year 2022 with the Spanish premiere of the new audiovisual opera by João Pedro Oliveira, a benchmark in electro acoustic composition today.

The 70th Week (a visual music opera)

The Book of Daniel is probably one of the most mysterious books in the Bible. The description of the events and prophecies include murder, treason, orgies, and torture. But it has also several very interesting and enigmatic prophecies that can be interpreted in many ways to be related to the present times. Social instability, global war, mass extermination, and many other events can possibly be interpreted in the prophetic writings of this young boy.

This visual music opera includes several events in the life of this prophet and his companions, as well as the three main prophecies that still may not have been fulfilled. The 70th week described in the book is one of these prophecies, and it relates to a state of constant war, sacrilege and destruction, that will finally lead to a miraculous transformation of the world in a new space of peace and justice. This prophecy is then re-stated in the Book of Revelation, in the Bible.

As the description of the piece (a visual music opera) suggests, the operatic action is re-interpreted in a screen, using several computer-generated images and sounds, as well as pre-recorded vocal lines and dance movements. Some of the 8 scenes that constitute this piece are imagined representations of the events described in the book and some other scenes are symbolic. The texts used are direct transcriptions of the original texts in the book, sung in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic. The order of the scenes is:

1. Daniel’s Prayer
2. The Vision of Four Beasts
3. The Dream of the Statue
4. The Blazing Furnace
5. The 70 Weeks Prophecy
6. Belshazar’s Feast
7. The Lion’s Den
8. The End of Times

The 70th Week was the result of a commission by the Ministry of Culture in Portugal. It also received the support of Manitou Fund (USA), mpmp - Património Musical Vivo (Portugal), University of Aveiro (Portugal) and University of California – Santa Barbara (USA). It was composed between March 2021 and September 2022.

Composer João Pedro Oliveira holds the Corwin Endowed Chair in Composition for the University of California at Santa Barbara. He studied organ performance, composition and architecture in Lisbon. He completed a PhD in Music at the University of New York at Stony Brook. His music includes opera, orchestral compositions, chamber music, electroacoustic music and experimental video. He has received over 70 international prizes and awards for his works, including three Prizes at Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, the prestigious Magisterium Prize and Giga-Hertz Special Award, 1st Prize in Metamorphoses competition, 1st Prize in Yamaha-Visiones Sonoras Competition, 1st Prize in Musica Nova competition. He taught at Aveiro University (Portugal) and Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). His publications include several articles in journals and a book on 20th century music theory.

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