Portimão’s Municipal Theatre is featuring an operatic performance on February 11, in which the same destiny unites five very different women.

Catarina Molder is staring in “Cinco Formas de Morrer de Amor” (“Five Ways to Die of Love”) at Portimão’s Municipal Theatre on February 11. In this operatic performance, the Portuguese soprano gives life to five very different women united by the same destiny.

Produced by Ópera do Castelo in partnership with the Teatro Nacional de São João, the show is staged by Lígia Roque and interpreted by Catarina Molder. The soprano will be accompanied by the Quarteto Ensemble MPMP (Heritage Movement for Portuguese Music) in this contemporary opera, featuring sounds from the post-Romanticism of Ernest Chausson to pop music by Portuguese band Clã.

The performance questions the condition of being a woman – so often raised to be perfect – and is also a metaphor for the artist’s suffering on stage.

According to the synopsis, “for a woman, defending her rights is inevitable; it is not enough to build an artistic object. However, it serves as inspiration and a motto. Those who die more of love or sacrifice more for love in opera, literature and life are women; they atone for the world’s evils.”

The show, which traces the path of a woman continually dying of love to the point of ultimate exhaustion, has the particularity of escaping the repertoire expected from a more traditional opera. Its sounds vary over the course of an hour, from “Lady Macbeth von Mzensk”, by Shostakovich, to “Competência para Amar” by Clã.

The show opens with “Chanson Perpétuelle” by Ernest Chausson, followed by “Serei só eu” by António Chagas Rosa based on an excerpt by Richard Wagner, and also includes an unpublished version of “Virgem Louca” by Rimbaud, reinterpreted by Luís Soldado.

Tickets cost €20 and can be purchased online at https://tempo.bol.pt or at the TEMPO ticket office from Tuesday to Saturday, between 13:00 and 18:00, and until 21:00 on the night of the show.