The Phantom of the Opera’s longest serving Carlotta, Lara Martins, has released a moving and eclectic debut album, Canção. Featuring 22 songs encompassing tango, Brazilian music and Portuguese fado, Lara celebrates the music of her homeland, Portugal with the grace, expertise and powerful theatricality of an accomplished West End performer.
Having moved to the UK to study opera at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Lara joined the London company of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera in 2012 and went on to play the role of Carlotta more than 1680 times over six years.
Despite the many Covid-19 restrictions in place and challenges of raising her two young children in lockdown, Lara created Canção in the last year.
An award-winning, experienced international singer, Lara has performed in operas across the world including roles such as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute and Cunegonde in Candide (Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon) to name a select few. Lara’s repertoire reveals a singer with great versatility from Mozart to Sondheim, Donizetti, Richard Strauss, Manuel de Falla, Kurt Weill, Gershwin, Bernstein or Lloyd Webber.
Lara has performed from Russia to Switzerland and from Portugal to the UK including gala concerts at many of the world’s finest opera houses including Opera de Toulon, Opera de Marseille, Opera d’Avignon and the Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House, London.
Canção features songs performed with a piano, cello and bandoneon, giving room and space for Lara’s voice to guide and define the album’s journey. Lara performs stunning fado classics including Trova do Vento Que Passa [“Song of the Passing Wind”], Com Que Voz [“With Which Voice”] and Abandono [“Abandonment”]. Portuguese pianist and composer, Daniel Bernardes composed 2 compositions for Lara Martins on Canção.
Canção features the first complete recording of Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri’s 13 love songs ever made.
Each song on Canção forms part of a careful selection of important musical and cultural influences on Lara’s career and life, as she says in her own words,
“A reflection of the society in which it is found, this repertoire also represents a collective identity, acting as a link in the intercultural chain. With this principle in mind, and with my own cultural roots as a starting point, I decided to explore the triangle between the Tango (Astor Piazzolla), Brazilian music (Guarnieri) and Fado (three themes which Amália Rodrigues made her own), with the addition of a touch of modernity in the form of two miniatures by Daniel Bernardes.”
Canção was produced by author and musicologist, Tiago Manuel de Hora, co-founder of the Portuguese cultural management company, Artway Culture & Arts which programmes a series of concerts, shows and album recordings for special projects.
