With the living and fearless voice of a fishwife on land, we start the journey throughout the daily lives of the fishing community of Esposende (a seashore village in the north of Portugal), in the first half of the 20th century. Between the fishing and agriculture, the fish and the sargassum, the plentiness and the scarcity, the characters grow older as the story moves forward, as if the four seasons of the year keep the rhythm of a whole life of longing.

In this impression of a not-so-distant past so connected to the Portuguese traditions and its peoples, we find the steady impetus of nature, the herculean task of survival in such a poor, yet unwavering, community, and the profound commitment to a romantic love between those who stay and those who leave: “diz-me tu porque hei de confiar / que além de mim / também esse mar te ame?” [“tell me, why should I trust / that other than me / the sea will also love you?”].

Lastly, as an elegy, the journey ends with the evocation of a nautical tragedy, as the opera is thematically and chronologically developed around an historic shipwreck, in 1888, of the barge of S. João Novo.

Specifically, regarding the music, during the last scene before the Epilogue, INVERNO, the composer developed and extramusical layer, regarding the shipwreck. Only one of the twenty-five fishermen survived, and as it was such a human tragedy, their first and last names were used as cryptographic material, by a transcription of the syllables and letters into micro and macrostructures, and into rhythmical, harmonic, and melodic materials, simultaneously standing as the climax of the work and as a homage to the perished men: José Eiras, Jacinto Loureiro, David Loureiro, Manuel Loureiro, José Eiras, Manuel Eiras, José Mota, Silvério Barros, António Afonso, José Soldado, Clementino Soldado, Manuel Soldado, José Belo, José Loureiro, José Vieira, Afonso Sacramento, Carlos Maciel, Luís Lemos, Secundino Lopes, Manuel Barbosa, Victor Gomes, João Lima, José Eiras (outro), José Moura.

To the rescue, in this TORRE DA MEMÓRIA [TOWER OF MEMORY], the eternal acceptance of those who belong to the sea – for those who never returned and for those searching still, like a lit candle in the dark, the hope of a possible future.