The Art of Song project was born from the desire of Rita Maria and Filipe Raposo to show a sample of the vast musical universe that inspires them: compositions of traditional Iberian-Portuguese music, from North American standards to Baroque arias, and from the influence of the music of cinema to its original compositions. Through a collection of records, they explore an eclectic and unusual repertoire of erudite and popular composers, from different generations and backgrounds. Thus, the album Rita Maria & Filipe Raposo – Live in Oslo, released by Lugre Records in August 2018, became the embryo of the The Art of Song project. This record, recorded live in the Cosmopolite room, synthesises the confluence of musical genres that we would like to deepen, in the collection of records that we call The Art of Song. The idea for the first volume, The Art of Song – When Baroque Meets Jazz, came, however, after the invitation of soprano Catarina Molder to record reinterpretations of famous baroque operatic arias for RTP’s Super Diva show. The Art of Song – When Baroque Meets Jazz starts, therefore, from the passion for works by Baroque musical geniuses such as Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach and Händel and the influence that these composers had in their way of listening to music.

In the works of Rita Maria and Filipe Raposo, improvisation works as a key element in linking apparently distant musical genres. The musical influences that shaped them artistically – classical music, jazz and the traditional songbook – end up cohabiting in their own territory. With the series of records The Art of Song, they seek to explore the common link between these three great reference matrices for their artistic work as a duo. In this show at São Luiz, through the presentation of baroque arias and original compositions, the public will be able to perceive the formal similarities that the Baroque and Jazz genres have: cyclical forms, figured bass – figures in which the harmonic structures in both genres are based – , melodies with a very powerful DNA that the two musicians keep with great affection in their emotional memory. Baroque and Jazz are both musical genres with a performative vocation, and it is mainly on stage that improvisation will take place through the counterpoint between voice and piano, between melody and harmony, designing new generative structures and constructive processes, achieving a greater musical metaphor – one of freedom and the creative individuality of each of them.