Bach/Xenakis: between labyrinths and constellations

Lisbon, Portugal (São Luiz Teatro Municipal) - September, 2025

Between percussion, dance and two monuments of music history, Pedro Carneiro and Teresa Simas revisit their encounter in London at the South Bank Centre 25 years ago. Bach’s The Musical Offering and Xenakis’s Pléïades are celebrated here with a huge percussion orchestra and dancers, in a continuum between labyrinths and constellations, in the immediate joy of the ceaseless propulsion of sound, rhythm and movement, with a new choreographic creation by Teresa Simas. Based on an enigmatic theme by Frederick the Great, The Musical Offering (1747) is one of the great monuments of contrapoint art from Bach’s final years. Inspired by the stars and constellations, with the brilliance of magical West African percussion and the hypnotic Gamelan from the islands of Java and Bali, the Pléïades (1979) transports us into an unstoppable maelstrom, a profusion of colours, movements and rhythms. Across the 232 years that separate the two works, we witness a contemplation on geometry, patterns, form and invention.

Co-production: Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa
(OCP) and São Luiz Teatro Municipal
Artistic direction and percussion: Pedro Carneiro
Choreography: Teresa Simas
Choreographic assistant: Leonardo Centi
Costume designers: Rui Alexandre and Aldina Jesus
Lighting design and operation: Zé Rui
Percussion: João Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Picamilho, João Braga Simões, Tomas Moital, Agostinho Sequeira Performance and choreographic co-creation (in alphabetical order): Cristina Vizir, Deolinda Mascarenhas, Eron Pimenta, Gustavo Nunes, Junis Becherer, Pedro António Carvalho, Thalia Agapaki, Rafaela Nunes, Rita Ferreira, Sasha Demina Intern: Inês Carneiro
Support: Direção-Geral das Artes, Município de Lisboa, PWC, Antena 2, BTO
Photography: Tânia Settimelli