The Scene:
In Carlota’s studio. It is a favela, heavily decorated in colorful, plastic items. There is not a blank spot anywhere. She is seated with her crystal ball and bowl of bon-bons, which she eats during the first part of the scene. Her previous client runs through the room crying hysterically.
The Opera:
Macabéa is based on Clarice Lispector’s final work The Hour of the Star (1978). A Ukrainian-born Brazilian author, her work disrupts historical tropes regarding poverty by creating a character who is miserably poor yet strangely free. Young Macabea lives in Rio’s slums, barely existing, loving hot dogs, and spending time with her repulsive boyfriend. Macabea goes to see a fortune-teller. As she arrives another client is running out crying hysterically. The fortune-teller explains that the woman will soon be killed by a hit-and-run, but that Macabea will soon meet a rich, European boyfriend who will give her furs. But the seer’s signals were crossed: as Macabea steps onto the street a yellow Mercedes barrels down and strikes her. As she dies, the passersby do not see that her blood is a beautiful color red. In this operatic adaptation by novelist Sergio Chejfec, the narrator is a film director who, rather than observe Macabea’s death from a distance, builds a conspiracy to the climax of the fortune-teller’s misreading.

https://www.lispectoropera.com/about