Adílson – An opera by Dino D’Santiago

An opera by Dino D’Santiago
“Adilson” is an opera in five acts directed by Dino D’Santiago, with a libretto by Rui Catalão, commissioned for BoCA — Biennial of Contemporary Arts.

This new work follows the journey of an Afro-descendant man, born in Angola to Cape Verdean parents, who has lived in Portugal for over 40 years—without ever obtaining Portuguese citizenship.

Called D’Afonsa by his friends, Nuno by his family, and Adilson on his passport, his life unfolds between waiting rooms, delayed processes, and a bureaucratic maze that prevents him from being fully recognized by the country where he has always lived.

More than an individual, Adilson represents thousands of people left on the margins of the system. The opera transforms waiting into poetry and turns invisibility into an act of resistance. At the work’s culmination, the cry echoes beyond the stage: “I am not Portuguese. I am Portugal. A country waiting.”