Biography
Graduated in Vocal Studies (ESMAE) in Media and advertising (Universidade do Minho), Master in Music Education (Universidade de Aveiro), Sara Braga Simões is currently a doctorate at Inet-MD, with a grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology. She is researching into Leal Moreira’s drammatic works - one of the most important portuguese composers of the 18th century, (supervisor: Doctor Jorge Salgado Correia). Sara Braga Simões is a winner of several national and international prizes. She is a regular guest at São Carlos - the Lisbon Opera House - and all the main theatres, concert halls and music festivals in Portugal. She has also performed in the U.K., Spain, France, Andorra, Slovenia and Mozambique. Sara’s operatic roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Rita (Donizetti), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Despina (Così fan Tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Rita (Donizetti), Mabel (The pirates of Penzance, Sullivan), Rowan (Britten's The little Sweep), among many others. Her concert performances include Händel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Gloria, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’étè and other works by Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Ravel, Dvořák, Berio, George Crumb, George Benjamin, Peter Maxwell Davies, among others. She was chosen to sing the female leading role in the world première of seven XXI century operas and many works of renowned composers such as João Pedro Oliveira, Nuno Côrte-Real, Luís Tinoco and Aubert Lemeland. She made her London debut with London Sinfonietta in the world premiere of Pedro Amaral’s Opera O Sonho [The Dream]. Sara has sung with conductors such as Laurence Cummings, Lawrence Renes, Brad Cohen, Peter Rundell, Martin Andre, João Paulo Santos, Cesário Costa, Joana Carneiro, Pedro Neves, Rui Pinheiro, Julia Jones, António Saiote, Stefan Asbury, Johannes Willig, Marcos Magalhães, Marc Tardue, Pierre-Andre Valade, among others.
Doctoral Project
Titles
The drammatic works in the Portuguese Musical production in the end of the 18th Century: the legacy of António Leal Moreira. Grounding an informed performance.
Advisor
Fellow Reference
SFRH/BD/104880/2014
Abstract
With this research the author aims to contribute to the knowledge of the Portuguese musical production in the eighteenth century, particularly in the context of dramatic works, analyzing the unexplored universe of Leal Moreira’s legacy, considered by the literature as one of the most important Portuguese composers of the 18th century. The author intends to establish relations between the dramatic and musical narrative, analysing the composer's stylistic choices - that is, analysing the composer’s musical work upon the literary narrative - seeking to define a style. One of the goals is to verify if 'A Vingança da Cigana' - one of his few works with modern interpretation, inspired by the so called ‘Teatro de cordel’- is an exception to the remaing work of Leal Moreira which is characterized by the influence of the Neapolitan school. The analysis and systematization of these data will lead to the selection of musical excerpts and will feed the author’s interpretation processes of the chosen characters; these processes will also be described and analyzed.
