The eight songs

Last Sunday, Helene sang a very special repertoire at the historic Padre Bento Theater, the new home of the Guarulhos orchestras, which brought together in the same concert the last four songs by Richard Strauss (“Vier letze Lieder”) and the four songs from the Amazon Forest by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Uniting these two cycles of orchestral songs was something that the soprano wanted a few years ago, as composers, as well as contemporaries, were in similar moments of life when writing the pieces, but in different cultures and realities.

Those who were in the beautiful theater enjoyed the concert and applauded all the pieces effusively (the program still had the symphonic episode by Francisco Braga, only orchestral), with an encore of the “Melodia Sentimental” at the end. The conductor in charge was Emiliano Patarra, artistic director and principal conductor of the Guarulhos orchestras, and on stage the GRU Symphony and the Municipal Youth Orchestra of Guarulhos were joined, completely filling the stage of its new home.

Many authorities were present at the event, including the Mayor and Vice-Mayor of Guarulhos who even commented on the importance and beauty of the presentation on their social medias.

Helene besides singing wonderfully the difficult repertoire was still beautiful, at the beginning of the concert some moments were necessary to wait after her entrance because a baby could not contain himself and when he saw the soprano he began to say aloud to his mother that a princess on stage. At the end of the performance, the soprano met with Brayan, an autistic student from the Música nas Escolas project, who was delighted to see an autistic woman on stage.

The recording video is available on the Orquestras de Guarulhos website and will soon also be accessible here in the website gallery.