The Meticulous Irreverence of José Lopes e Silva: Some Comments on Two Staged Works

ABSTRACT This paper aims to highlight the originality and irreverence of José Lopes e Silva’s (1937–2019) music theatre works. Lopes e Silva was an exceptionally talented guitarist and an extremely inventive composer. However, while his work as a guitarist has received wide international recognition, his work as a composer has been largely overlooked and seems to be somewhat forgotten. Drawing on documents from the Lopes e Silva collection, we will discuss some of his compositional practices by focusing on two of his music theatre works, No Jardim das Delícias (1991–92) and Canticum Joviale (1993). These works belong to a trilogy inspired by a Hieronymus Bosch triptych. The first work, Tentações (1990), appears to be lost. We will examine in particular Lopes e Silva’s complex compositional strategies for articulating the various elements of these music theatre works. These elements include an electroacoustic layer that works as a general script, and to which everything is related (instrumental music, choreography, lighting, and so on); texts (poetry and prose) written by Lopes e Silva himself; different types of music reservoirs; meticulous instructions for improvisation; detailed schemes for dancing and acting; graphic scripts and scores.