Partner: Porto Municipal Council - Porto Lazer

Opera fiXi is a new opera on bicycles, directed by Kaffe Matthews and implemented for the city of Porto in collaboration with the company Visões Úteis. It talks about a time and place in which fishermen are women and mermaids are men. In which the 'mermen' have breasts, seaweed hair and play harps made from fishing lines and the 'fisherwomen' use fish skin suits when they head out to sea and sing songs at the frequency of the human heart (298.5Hz), inviting the male fish towards their huge nets, woven from their hair and vines. Performed using a unique system of sonic bicycles that is able to locate the music distributed across layers of fragments in relation to points along the River Douro, the audience is invited to go to a shop in the Rua do Infante D. Henrique, where the bicycles are located and then take one and pedal to listen to the work that unfolds along the riverfront, from the river to the lighthouse and then back to the shop. The sonic cycling transports the members of the audience to enchanted journeys, that are often beautiful but also from another world, that is sometimes fun or maybe even strange but always convincing. 

The contents of the Opera Fixi are inspired by contemporary fishing practises, the river Douro and the quality of its water, with the duration of a nocturnal fishing trip and linked to the pollution of the river which determines the rate of sex change of the fish. Matthews and Visões Úteis investigate possible routes in Porto for sonic bicycles, only finding the path to the sea, which thus becomes its musical score, and current ways of life along the river, which become the libretto. FiXe - fish - cool - fix - fiXi. Portuguese English – English Portuguese. 

Opera fiXi plays with semantics and rhythm, via writing produced by the artists and also translation of the lyrics of the songs made between them. Throughout this work there is a narrative duality between that which lies above and under the water, either factual or fictional, with sound sources that include recordings made in the Douro, harp, saxophones, invented instruments and digital processing and improvisations with musicians from Porto, overseen by Matthews. Their collaboration extends to a chorus of children, traditional singers, rappers, a rock musician, a lyrical singer, a chorus of women from Afurada and the artists themselves, making Opera fiXi a genuine site specific and collaborative work. 

Kaffe Matthews is a composer and sound artist who produces live performances with things and places around the world in order to create electro-acoustic music for a broad spectrum of audiences. His many awards include a BAFTA (in 2004) and a distinction from the PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA (2006).