Music

Adilson

Name: Adilson
Start: 2025-09-12T20:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-09-12T21:00:00+01:00
Location: Centro Cultural de Belém

Dino D’Santiago

Dates / Schedules

Main Auditorium

100 min.

Ages

Prices

This event has already taken place

Dates / Schedules

Friday, september 12th 2025 08:00pm

Saturday, september 13th 2025 07:000pm

Sunday, september 14th 2025 05:00pm

Performance spoken in Portuguese, without translation

Music

Opera

BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts – Opera

Adilson is a five-act opera directed by Dino D’Santiago, based on the original text Serviço Estrangeiro by Rui Catalão, with musical direction by Martim Sousa Tavares. It follows the journey of an Afro-descendant man, born in Angola to Cape Verdean parents, who has lived in Portugal for over 40 years — without ever obtaining Portuguese citizenship. Called D’Afonsa by his friends, Nuno by his family, and Adilson on his passport, his life unfolds in waiting rooms, postponed proceedings, and a bureaucratic labyrinth that prevents him from being fully recognized by the country where he has always lived.

More than an individual, Adilson represents thousands of people left at the margins of the system. The opera turns waiting into poetry and invisibility into an act of resistance. At its climax, a cry resounds beyond the stage: “I am not Portuguese. I am Portugal. A country waiting.”

Addressing themes such as social injustice, discrimination, human fragility, and hope, this first incursion by Dino D’Santiago into the realm of opera also marks fifty years since the end of Portuguese military presence in colonial territories in Africa.

The Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation reserves the right to collect, store and use recordings of image, sound and voice, for the purposes of dissemination and for preserving the memory of its cultural and artistic activities, as well as its spaces. Should you require any further information, please contact us at the following email address: privacidade@ccb.pt

Ages

Data sheet

Concept and Staging Dino D’Santiago
Libretto and Dramaturgy Dino D’Santiago, based on the original text Serviço Estrangeiro by Rui Catalão
Musical Direction Martim Sousa Tavares
Musical Composition / Music Production Dino D’Santiago and Djodje Almeida
Orchestral Arrangements João Martins
Music Iuri Oliveira, Djodje Almeida, Mais Hreish, Raúl da Costa
Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil (CCB, Lisbon)
Orquestra Sinfonietta de Braga (Theatro Circo, Braga)
Orquestra do Algarve (Teatro das Figuras, Faro)
Orquestra das Beiras (Teatro Aveirense, Aveiro)
Performers Michelle Mara, Cati, NBC, Soraia Morais, Koffy,
Rebeca Reinaldo, Rúben Gomes
Special Guest Adilson Correia Duarte a.k.a. Bonny
Assistant Director Solange Freitas
Actor Direction Collaboration Cláudia Semedo
Vocal Direction Francisco Pessoa Júnior

Set Design Pedro Azevedo
Lighting Design Rui Monteiro
Sound Design Bruno Lobato
Stage Management Francisca Rodrigues
Costume Design José António Tenente
Production Direction José Maria Cortez (BoCA)
Executive Production Irina Leite Velho
Commission and Production BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts (Lisbon)
Local Production Management Global
Coproduction Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), Theatro Circo (Braga),
Teatro das Figuras (Faro), Teatro Aveirense (Aveiro)

Prices and Discounts

Note: -

Plant

Discounts

DISCOUNTS are only valid for CCB production and/or co-production shows and for tickets with a price above €12, with the exception of CCB cardholders, the discount is applied to values above €8.

50 % people with specific needs and accompanying person
50% for Arts and culture professionals
50% for unemployed

30% for CCB Card’s holders (individual, Senior, Youth and Family)
20% for people over 65 / for under 30s / students / for groups of more than 20 people

Tickets at €5 for Artistic Schools

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Adilson

Dino D’Santiago

Dates / Schedules