Women in Music

This a necessary awakening to ensure we never return to the old days. Being a woman in the arts – and not only – was often very hard or even impossible. Their conditional acceptance into areas identified as “female” was insufficient for tenacious women like Augusta Holmès, a 19th-century Parisian composer who has almost been erased from history but whose work is revived here for this series of concerts. The role of women as muses was demeaning. Casa da Música celebrates women in music, be they composers, conductors, performers or central characters in the artistic work – part of a process that will not end here and is increasingly reflected in the annual programming. The concert features major figures from the international panorama, such as composer Ustina Dubitski, the pianist Yeol Eum Son and composers such as Yiran Zhao, Olga Neuwirth and Lili Boulanger. The list will also include Liza Lim, the composer-in-residence for the current season – who herself evokes the female Greek poet Sappho. Men are also called upon to celebrate women: Leoš Janáček told the tragic story of Jenufa, a woman loved by two men; Beethoven made Leonore the central character in Fidelio; Mark-Anthony Turnage wrote an opera about the tragic figure of Anna Nicole Smith. On a different note, the Sala Suggia is still staging Horses, a tribute to Patti Smith directed by Albano Jerónimo with The Legendary Tiger Man and Íris Cayate.