Costa Campos
Baritone
A full, glowing night, of augurious stars, came down upon the blessed and mystical set erected at the ruins of Convento do Carmo, there to witness the premiere of Costa Campos as a lead singer, playing D. Basilio from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, under the direction of Jan Latham König.It was the first peak in the life of this young man graduated in Law, born in Luanda, who quested madly for the Apollonius gesture, the grave sculpture of singing, ever since he emerged from the Escola de Teatro e Cinema do Conservatório Nacional, with Maria Germana Tânger and Águeda Sena, since when he received the teachings of Maria Cristina de Castro, Hugo Casaes, Natália Viana, Elsa Saque and Liliane Bizineche; the conspicuous and detailed perfecting of the art and of the craft with Ivo Vinco, Jeff Lawton, Jonathan Morris and Günther Bauer; and finally the splendid principles of voice and interpretation from the divine Grace Bumbry and that illustrious maestro, Enza Ferrari.There followed the musical-theatrical, multi-disciplinal and various performances: Judas, from O Nazareno (Coliseu de Lisboa), La Diva from Zarzuelas Cabaré e Olé Olé (Municipal de S. Luís), the Marquis of Obigny in the historical production of La Traviata, signed by Pier Luigi Pizzi and directed by Giuliano Carella (Teatro de S. Carlos), the Senator Robert Lyons in Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (Festival de Música de Macau), Carumba, from Leal Moreira’s A Vingança da Cigana.In splendid artistic fruits did the year 2009 smile upon Costa Campos when, in the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, exemplarily integrated in the principles and in the most original scenic conceptions of such great men of the Theatre as Peter Konwintschy and Michael Hampe, he achieved authentic creations in the roles of Bénoit, from La Bohème (directed byJulia Jones), and of the Praetorian in Handel’s Agripina.Indefatigably perfecting his artistic work, eternally avid for new challenges, it is in the creation of the role Montesinos in the opera D. Quixote et la Duchesse, by Boismortier, that he reaps abundant triumph by exhibiting the excellence of his bass register, for the first time facing the hardships of thebasso profondo tessitura that he would graciously gift the Teatro de S. Carlos upon that most noble staging of Don Carlo supported by his cover of the Inquisitor role.
His unrelenting quest for the masterful grasp of that most chimerical art has ennobled the S. Carlos with roles as meticulously constructed as they were to be portentous in their execution: in Puccini's La Rondine (Rabonnier) and assenet's Thaïs, from Verdi's iconic Traviata to Stravinski's extravagant The Rake's Progress, and in Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Ufficiale). A season designed to denote the distinction of the S. Carlos resident chorus heard his voice in oblation, serving Bomtempo's Requiem and Marcos Portugal's Missa Grande, culminating in Liszt's Via Crucis with a profoundly spiritual representation of Jesus Christ.A most civic-minded citizen, man of ideals and defender of the most noble causes, Costa Campos did not miss the opportunity to associate himself with those principles of voluntarism and social justice in which he so profoundly believes, when he performed at the Atrium Saldanha, invited by LANCIA, in an homage to one of the fundamental figures of his own personal iconography, Nelson Mandela.He was the mentor of a cultural project entitled Primo Canto, where the artistic wisdom begotten in his contact with the Grand Masters was passed onto others. This project sowed the seeds of an artistic gestalt, from which was reaped the Costa Campos Cultural Heritage, arduously crystallised.This relentless mystagogue did honour his disciples with a classical season, conceived and overseen by himselft, at the Hotel Avenida Palace, where one could discern the humblest beginnings of his Cultural Heritage in seven different productions, amidst which La Serva Padrona. The Hotel Vila Galé Opera also found him a host to lyrical music and its professionals and afficionados, with the project Opera Delicacies, a series of themed dinners punctuated by live music and livelier discussion.Hailed as an aesthete both on- and off-stage, Costa Campos bears a debt of infinite gratitude towards his beloved Mother and the unforgettable Grace Bumbry for his excellence throughout.
"As a child, in school I was a classmate of the son of two great opera singers, Sara Rosa and Álvaro Malta. Álvaro Malta, whose introduction is not required, was one of the greatest lyric singers of the 20th century in Portugal. Sara Rosa was a woman of great motivation for me. When I first saw her on stage, playing Sevadilha in Guerras do Alecrim e Majerona, I realized: "Wow, this is what I want to do when I grow up." To that moment and to her, I owe what I am today."