Relicário Perpétuo

What to keep, what to discard, what has value - what authority could dictate it? And Camões, which one to keep and celebrate? The one of Petrarchan sonnets, the one of Horatian odes, the one of Virgilian epic now under revision? The Camões of ill-fated theater? The one of semi-vile letters? The one of satires yet to be studied? In Relicário Perpétuo there are all the Camões, the most they can be. In the libretto, the Poet summons a fantastical geography of oriental court, where an abandoned prince indiscriminately collects everything that comes to hand, in insane accumulation, incapable of deciding on its value. He awaits the return of Solomon, his father, his moral and aesthetic compass. Shipwrecked and oppressed on that enchanted island that adores him, Gerardo's court is the arena where Camões will fight for his place in the canon, influenced by the Vizier who makes him see the advantages of epic. It is, then, a tragicomedy, more humorous in scenes of critical-museological character, more tragic in the impatient tone of Camões imprisoned in our reductive readings. The libretto has six singers and a silent fakir. There are three male voices and three female voices, with some of them representing various parts. Beyond Camões, prince of Portugal's poets, we have Gerardo, prince of royal blood of India; Hipócrite, the Vizier of King Solomon, and Solomon himself, who returns in person to depart again on his active aging project. The female voices are those of the Slave, a kind of factotum for all, at the service of the Reliquary and beyond; A Saint of Roca, a lady who has perfect pitch, hearing even sounds coming from the future; and Foolish Joana, weaving commentary ranging from popular to philosophical. A Saint of Roca will also be a singer and a Courtesan, Dona Isabel. A note only on the languages in which the libretto is written: it includes texts in Papiamento and (more or less) Negrillo, in addition to invented languages stemming from Provençal and Catalan and sometimes sounding like Galician-Portuguese; literary Portuguese