With the support of IN2PAST, the Music Theatre Festival: 100 Years of Berio (1st Edition) kicks off on September 25 at the Lisbon School of Music (ESML – IPL) and ends on the 28th at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre, with a concert by pianist Stefano Malferrari, Tempo Reale, and trumpeter Cláudio da Silva.

On the 25th, the festival opens with the free concert ‘Berio’s electronic music’, at 8:30 p.m., by Tempo Reale, at the Vianna da Motta Auditorium of the ESML-IPL. The following afternoon, the school welcomes the symposium ‘2025: 100 Years of Cathy Berberian and Luciano Berio’, with a packed schedule of lectures, presentations, and discussions, including with Cristina Berio (only daughter of the muse of avant-garde singing and the Italian composer and conductor).

On Saturday September 27, at 9:00 p.m., also with free admission, the concert ‘Music Theatre Yesterday and Today’ premieres two works by Adriano Guarnieri in Portugal. ‘The idea behind the festival is to recreate a place of memory by bringing to the stage composers who were and are connected to theatre music, with Luciano Berio as the protagonist’, explains the festival’s director, artistic coordinator, and curator, CESEM – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher Filipa Magalhães.

Besides Berio, Berberian and Guarnieri, the festival also presents works by Sylvano Bussotti, Luigi Nono and Salvatore Sciarrino, closing on the 28th, at 7:00 p.m., at the Bernardo Sassetti Room of Teatro São Luiz, with the concert  ‘Stefano Malferrari & Tempo Reale: Piano + | Cláudio da Silva’. (Tickets on sale at https://www.teatrosaoluiz.pt/espetaculo/stefano-malferrari-tempo-reale-e-claudio-silva/).

‘The event also fosters collaboration between Italian and Portuguese musicians, with the aim of transmitting to future generations the memory and musical legacy left by Berio’, adds Filipa, who has been collaborating with Tempo Reale, a centre for musical research, production, and education founded by Luciano Berio in 1987 in Florence, and currently directed by Francesco Giomi.

Building on the legacy of Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian, the symposium aims to foster dialogue among students, researchers, and professionals who reflect on a wide range of disciplines, and share their perspectives on music theatre. Topics include the exploration of the boundaries of musical creation, performance practice, and the use of space as a musical parameter. It happens on the 26h, from 2:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., in the Small Auditorium at ESML-IPL.

Luciano Berio, a central figure in the European musical avant-garde of the twentieth century and a pioneer in the use of experimental techniques, was born on October 24, 1925.

Check out the full programme, synopses and performer’s biographies in the festival’s brochure (PDF) or below.