Reopening Lisbon II: Lightshows and Castles and, Yes, Moby Dick

As Lisbon and most of Portugal returns to a nearly normal life with restaurants, shops and even malls, historical venues and museums, and live theaters now open, Sarah and I have had the good fortune to discover more of the city’s charms and attractions over the last couple weeks. First, I discovered Lisboa Secreta and then Fever Lisboa, great websites with links to the latest happenings here in the city and surrounding area, and we jumped at the opportunity to experience a fascinating light show of Monet and Klimt artworks in the 18th century Reservoir de Mae d’Agua das Amoreiras.

Yes, the show was inside a several hundred year old historic structure with a gracefully arched aqueduct that is an intriguing experience on its own. Best of all, the reservoir is only about a ten minute bus or tram ride farther up the hill from us–okay, it’s only 1.7 km but mostly up hill and we did walk back home down the hill later. Not to mention that our tickets cost only 12€ each with our white hair discount of course. The projections of the images were in constant motion and accompanied by Beethoven, Ravel, Satie, and Debussy as would be expected, and the music was a perfect balance. The show continues at the reservoir through the end of June to be followed by one featuring DaVinci and others.

Next up, we decided to explore one of Lisbon’s iconic landmarks, the Castelo de Sao Jorge, the 11th century Moorish castle overlooking the city from the hill on the east of the central Baixa area. One of the joys of being here as the city awakens again is the minimal number of tourists–okay, we’ve been here only two months so we still qualify for that title–as well as the free admission for many locations through the end of April for residents of the city—so we qualify for that one as well!

We were mostly struck by another of Lisbon’s charms, the several miradouro’s or viewpoints around the city, and the miradouro at Castelo de São Jorge was intriguing for us since it looks toward our Chiado neighborhood perched on the hill to the west of the Baixa. And as is typical for this part of the country, the sunlight was brilliant and the sky with just enough cloud to create some magic, so we stood and strolled and stood some more, enraptured by the revealing panorama of our new home city.

The Castelo itself features some rather steep steps leading up to the ramparts–we climbed one set but decided to use our imagination for the others. All in all, a wonderful survey of another of Lisbon’s dramatic attractions. Now, as we walk the streets of our neighborhood or along the Praça do Rossio, we appreciate even more the occasional glimpse of the Castelo keeping watch over the city.

And one day just last week, as we walked past the north end of the Praça do Rossio, we noticed that some new sign posters had been mounted on the the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II and one of them announced a production of Moby Dick! Wow, 600 pages of Melville on stage, how could they do that? When we got home and checked online it turned out that the novel was being performed by puppets and portrayed in under two hours! Who could resist? The show was to be in English with Portuguese surtitles, so it would be perfect for us newcomers and we grabbed two of the last seats available for opening night of the two night stand.

The production was a compelling examination of Ahab’s maniacal pursuit of revenge on the white whale who had refused to submit to Ahab’s will and had taken off his leg in a past encounter. While the narrating character of Ishmael was a live actor whose monologues, in a beautifully enunciated, dramatic, Portuguese–“whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul”–knit together the plot and shed light on Ahab’s all consuming, autocratic vision of himself, the rest of the players were indeed puppets. Yet, these puppets weren’t cute little bouncy characters on strings, but mostly full sized and marvelously portrayed creations manipulated by sometimes as many as four or five puppeteers. Alas, no photos of the performance itself were allowed.

Indeed, the primary Ahab personification was an eight or nine foot tall character whose features, looks, gestures, and emotions drew us in, with the finesse of the puppeteers creating a genuine essence of the living. The puppet-characters smoked pipes and swung in their hammocks and fought the sharks and rose from the coffin. But the most powerful scene, for Sarah and me, was the portrayal of the chase and the capture of a whale, the drawing in to the ship and the flensing of the dying creature, and the filling of the water with blood, all watched by the whale’s orphaned calf, joylessly circling, circling beneath the boat.

Of course, underlying and supporting the action, the production had an onstage group of musicians–guitar, base, and trap set–that provided atmospheric sound effects and melodies, including all three players singing, that created a living soundscape of a slightly avant-garde nature that was spot on and added to the power of the retelling.

At any rate, as is the case with all such monsters as Ahab, his overweening pride and his never ending hatred–his “quenchless feud” with any who defy him–brings about the expected ending, the destruction of the ship and the death of all hands but Ishmael, who floats away on Queequeg’s unused coffin to tell the tale. Then, as the stage lights dim, in an awesome coda, Moby Dick, full sized, swims placidly across the top of the stage, his flipper gently stirring, and his sparkling eye slowly surveying the audience. Can you say standing ovation!!!

So, in a stretch of only a week or so, Sarah and I delighted in supporting the reopening of Lisbon and we look forward to learning more about our new home. Oh, and of course we did manage to try a few more restaurants, so maybe it’s time for a set of brief reviews, but that’s surely another story . . .