Fantasia portuguesa

Ana Vieira Leite graduated from the Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland, and the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo in Oporto, Portugal.   A laureate of the Jardin des Voix academy of Les Arts Florissants, her debut in the title role of the opera Partenope by Georg Frideric Handel with this ensemble in 2021 established her as one of the leading young singers in the field of Baroque music. Other projects with Les Arts Florissants have included the roles of Belinda in Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas and Eurydice in Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice, and Aminta in Handel’s opera Aminta e Fillide.   She has performed at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Opéra Comique and the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. The 2023/2024 season includes the roles of Créuse in Charpentier’s opera Medée at the Opéra National de Paris and Dalinda in Handel’s opera Ariodante at the Philharmonie de Paris. The singer also works with Cappella Mediterranea and Los Elementos and has released CDs with Les Argonautes, the Ensemble Bonnecorde, Divino Sospiro, and Concerto 1700.

Marco Oliveira is one of the most representative fado singers from Lisbon. This unique singer-songwriter is also a poet, composer and musician. Since 2008 he has participated in many international projects in Barcelona, Paris, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Vilnius, Prague, and Dublin. He has performed at festivals such as the Festival de l’Imaginaire (Paris), the Siesta Festival (Gdansk), the Songlines Fado Series (London), and a Fado evening at the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.) among others.   The singer has already put out four solo CDs: “Retrato”, “Amor É Água Que Corre”, “Ruas e Memórias”, and “Uma Noite em Lisboa”. His original compositions always tell urban stories and his albums are imbued with traditional Portuguese ambience and character.   In 2016 he collaborated with the Os Músicos do Tejo ensemble on the CD “Do Barroco ao Fado”. The CD “Ruas e Memórias”, the last musical production of the composer José Mário Branco, was considered one of the best albums of the year by the prestigious Portuguese magazine Ipsilon.

Founded in 2005 and directed by Marcos Magalhães and Marta Araújo, the ensemble Os Músicos do Tejo has established a respected position in the Portuguese early music scene. It has recorded six CDs: “Sementes do Fado”, “Árias de Luísa Todi”, the operas “La Spinalba” and “Il Trionfo d’Amore” by Francisco António de Almeida, “Do Barroco ao Fado” and “Il Mondo della Luna” by Pedro António Avondano in partnership with the Fundação Centro Cultural de Belém. Other operas it has produced are Lo frate ’nnamorato by Giovanni Baptista Pergolesi, Le Carnaval et la Folie by André Cardinal Destouches, and Paride ed Elena by Christoph Willibald Gluck.   The ensemble has participated in many events in Portugal and abroad. Under the auspices of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, it has presented several projects, including the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, the multi-disciplinary film As Filhas do Fogo and the programme “Do Barroco ao Fado”. In 2017, Os Músicos do Tejo enjoyed great success at the Festival de Herne in Germany.

Marcos Magalhães studied at the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (with Kenneth Gilbert, Christophe Rousset, and Kenneth Weiss). He has given many concerts in Portugal and other European countries as well as in Asia.   Marcos Magalhães is the chief conductor of Os Músicos do Tejo, one of the leading ensembles on the Portuguese music scene, co-founded by and co-directed with Marta Araújo. Since 2006, the ensemble has presented many projects focused on Baroque music. It has produced six CDs (four of them released by the Naxos label), which have gathered enthusiastic reviews. The CD entitled “Il Trionfo d’Amore” was included in the Quarterly Critics’ Choice longlist of the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, while the recording of the opera Il Mondo della Luna by Pedro António Avondano was nominated for the best classical album in the Portuguese Music Awards.   Marcos Magalhães performs as harpsichordist in many other projects, for example, in a duo with conductor and harpsichodist Aapo Häkkinen.