Coliseu Porto Ageas features culture shaping performances, such as classical music and opera

Coliseu Porto Ageas features over 30 performances that are, to say the least, culture shaping. The programme includes music, dance and "nearly 40 circus performances", according to Coliseu Porto Ageas Organisation.

The highlights are this week's "Circum-navegações" concert, on 28 September, inspired by the first circumnavigation of the Earth by Portuguese sailor and explorer Ferdinand Magellan and, on 26 October, the opera "La forza del destino", translated as "The Force of Destiny", by Giuseppe Verdi.

Five hundred years after the caravels of Portuguese sailor and explorer Ferdinand Magellan completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, within the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, Coliseu Porto Ageas hosts the must-hear event "Circum-navegações", with the Lisbon Metropolitan orchestra and Pedro Amaral as your guide to the heavens, with pieces by Joaquín Rodrigo and Antonin Dvo?ák, on 28 September, at 9.30pm.

Soloist João Diogo Leitão will delight the audience with "Concerto de Aranjuez", one of the most popular pieces by Spanish Joaquín Rodrigo, followed by "Palillos y panderetas", by the same author.

Then, conductor Pedro Amaral, leads the musical voyage through Antonín Dvorák's New World Symphony, Symphony No 9.

About a month later, it's time to appreciate Giuseppe Verdi's "la Forza del Destino". The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, in the scope of the partnership with the National Theatre São Carlos (TNSC), in Lisbon.

It is worth mentioning that this partnership kicked off with the staging of Turandot, by Puccini, in October 2018, featuring soprano Elisabete Matos, who was announced as the new artistic director of TNSC, just last week.

"La Forza del Destino" features the musical direction by Antonio Pirolli and staging by David Pountney, and presents Juliana Di Giacomo, as Donna Leonora, and Kristian Benedikt, as Don Álvaro, a cast that also includes Cátia Moreso, Luís Rodrigues and João Merino.

Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" takes to the stage on 26 October, and joining conductor Antonio Pirolli will be the Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra and the TNSC Choir.

See here for more information.