Performers

Interview
Bibliography
Discography
Audio
Images
Videos
Multimedia
Radio programmes
Television programmes
Others
Details as composer
The Quarteto Contratempus was founded at the ESMAE, in Porto, and it has overcome academic barriers in order to bring the sublime art that music is to a wider audience.

It has an unusual formation, being composed by soprano, clarinet, cello and piano, thus representing the voice, the wind instruments, the strings and the great orchestra. The Quartet presents the possibility of a wide range of colours made available by the contrasting tones of the instruments. This is what makes Contratempus a special formation. To this day, it has been dedicated to the interpretation of contemporary music, premiering works by Portuguese composers.


The Contratempus has performed in several concert halls in Portugal, Brazil and Spain. Here it's worth highlighting the Helena Sá e Costa Theatre in Porto, the Faculdade de História e Hostal dos Reis Católicos em Santiago de Compostela, Verbum and Marco in Vigo, at the closing of the Xeracion Festival 2000+9 and Via Stellae2010. In 2011 they were invited by the composer Fernando C. Lapa to present his work Destinos (dedicated to the Quartet) at an event in his honour, in Braga at the D. Diogo de Sousa Museum.

In 2013, the Contratempus was invited to premiere in Brazil works by Portuguese composers, as part of the celebrations of the Portugal in Brazil year. They performed in Rio de Janeiro representing Portugal in the classical music genre, having premiered the works: O escuro silêncio da chuva by Daniel Moreira and Viagem interior by Sérgio Azevedo.

In 2014 the Contratempus musicians' have started a new chamber comic opera project, which has a certain particularity – the instrumentalists on stage are actors together with the singers. The Quartet has been affirmed by the innovation, which it brings to the artistic world, within the realisation of opera performances (namely on a small scale and with recurrent use of experimentation with new technologies).


In 2015, the Quarteto Contratempus premiered the comic opera A querela dos grilos by Fátima Fonte, and in 2016, at the Campo Alegre Municipal Theater in Porto, the comic opera Os dilemas dietéticos de uma matrioska do meio by Nuno Côrte-Real. These works have original libretos and music, specially written for this formation. The operas were in circulation around the country during more than 15 performances. Due to its success, the show Os dilemas dietéticos de uma matrioska do meio will still be in circulation in 2020.


In 2017 the Contratempus presented the comic opera As sete mulheres de Jeremias Epicentro by Jorge Prendas, premiered in September at the Porto Municipal Theater - Campo Alegre. It's in this work that the multimedia component of the Quartet's operas takes on a more central role and becomes a crucial element of their creations. In this case, the wearable interactive multimedia technology (created in the laboratory context at FEUP), lets the performers manipulate sound and image in real time.

Following this performance, in 2018 the Quartet was distinguished with the 3rd National Prize for Creative Industries (promoted by the Super Bock / Serralves Group) and the BfK Prize (promoted by the ANI - National Innovation Agency). In the same year (when the Quartet celebrates its 10th anniversary), the Contratempus premieres Variações a partir de um Coração by Fernando C. Lapa, a work that recreates some of the most emblematic repertoire of the Portuguese Popular Cancioneiro (Songbook), through contemporary perspective.

In 2019, the Quartet premiered its most recent creation, the opera Simplex by Telmo Marques, a co-production with the Porto Municipal Theater. Presently the Contratempus is preparing the opera's national tour, with about 10 scheduled performances.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Quarteto Contratempus

Last update on: November 19th, 2019