Benoît Gibson “A Menina Gotinha de Água" New Music Review Lounge

“Miguel Azguime, known for his great versatility and for possessing a wide range of resources within the contemporary idiom, found the appropriate elements to enhance the meaning of the text. Many of the periodic, ascending or descending gestures evoked images of waves or the rises and falls of the water droplets during the water cycle. There were also continuous fluctuations of melodic lines imitating the wind, and rhythmic patterns that sounded like isolated or superimposed ostinatos encouraging the water droplets in their march to the sea. The harmonic modulations that occurred just before the water droplets ended their journey produced a notable timbral effect. The real-time sound transformations were discreet. As for the pre-recorded sounds played in alternation with the singing voices, they enriched the overall sound palette.  (...). The opera «A Menina Gotinha de Água» owes much of its success to the integration of its components. It is a good example of where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For its quality and diversity of means, it will be remembered as one of the major events on the Portuguese contemporary music scene in 2011. At the end of the performance, it was rewarded with an enthusiastic round of applause from the audience.”