São Paulo Stages 'Esquecer? Nunca Mais!' on Dictatorship's Wounds

By Tom Whitfield

On September 16, hours after learning she had been nominated for a 2026 Latin Grammy, Franco-Bolivian composer Élodie Bouny saw her new opera "Esquecer? Nunca Mais!" ("Forget? Never Again!") premiere at São Paulo's Teatro Moise Safra. The work confronts the legacy of Brazil's military dictatorship through the documented ordeal of a torture survivor.

The opera was conceived by historian and Brazilianist James N. Green, with music by Bouny alongside composer Roee Ben Sira. Fernanda Maia wrote the libretto. The story traces the real-life case of Marcos Arruda, an economist, educator and militant of the Ação Popular movement, who survived severe torture under the military regime.

What sources hold the story together?

Green's connection to the material is direct, not archival alone. He met Arruda in Washington in the 1970s through the Committee Against Repression in Brazil, and was himself an activist in his youth. The libretto draws on letters, documents and memories preserved by Arruda's mother, Lina, whose fight to save her son produced a book that serves as the central axis of the opera's narrative.

Green is no stranger to the opera house. He once made international news when he escorted former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff — herself a torture survivor under the military regime — to Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Rousseff, a noted opera lover, once famously corrected a journalist who tried to trip her up on details of Verdi's "Otello."

A double milestone for Bouny

The premiere's timing condensed two career peaks into one day. On September 16, Bouny was named among five nominees for the 2026 Latin Grammy for Best Classical Composition, for "Tríptico Sudamericano," performed by Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas with Pedro Franco, Federico Tarazona and Jorge Glem.

Bouny already holds a place in São Paulo's operatic history. In 2022, the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo presented her opera "Homens de Papel," based on the play by Brazilian dramatist Plínio Marcos, on a double bill with Leonardo Martinelli's "Navalha na Carne." Those two works were the institution's first commissioned new operas — a fact worth noting, since it marks Bouny as a repeat bet on new Brazilian opera rather than a one-off.

Two composers, two traditions

The Bouny–Ben Sira pairing rests on shared fluency in both classical and popular idioms. Bouny fuses a rigorous European classical training with Latin American traditions; her academic research at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro examined structural differences between classically trained and popularly trained guitarists. Ben Sira, a pianist, composer and researcher rooted in classical and jazz piano, is also acclaimed for his command of choro, Brazil's highly technical, syncopated instrumental genre.

Who carries the staging?

The premiere cast drew on leading Brazilian voices: tenor Jabez Lima, baritones Vinícius Atique and Julián Lisnichuk, and soprano Gabriella Pace as Maria Moema — the character who, unable to withstand torture, ultimately betrays Arruda. Pablo Maritano holds artistic direction, Zé Henrique de Paula stages the production, and Leonardo Labrada conducts.

What does this change for Brazil's memory debate?

The timing is the point. Brazil's presidential election held its first round on October 4 amid intense polarization and renewed public argument over the dictatorship's legacy. Far-right candidates, some of whom challenged Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 2022 victory and backed the January 8, 2023 invasion of Brazil's congress, federal court and presidential palace, have put democratic institutions back at the center of debate.

An opera about state torture does not settle that argument. What it does is move it onto a lyric stage, before an audience, in the country's largest city — a reminder that whether the production travels beyond São Paulo, and who watches it, may matter as much as the work itself.