Fernando Melo
© Hans Gerritsen
Choreographer
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‘Fernando Melo bisects the stage with a two-way mirror, creating several simmering versions of reality… Music, lighting and movement achieve a mesmerising synchronicity’
The Guardian
Fernando Melo is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and resides in Sweden. At the age of sixteen he was awarded a scholarship to train at the Vienna State Opera Ballet; since then he has been in Europe, building his career as a dancer and choreographer and creating works for stages around the world.
He also choreographs and directs dance film; his most recent film Nonstop was screened at Cinedans in the Netherlands. Prior to this, he created Mahjong, which screened at several international film festivals and received the 2010 Audience Award at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival.
Choreographing for opera, Melo has worked extensively with the director Patrick Kinmonth on such projects as Gassmann’s L’Opera seria for La Monnaie, Brussels with René Jacobs, Strauss’ Daphne at Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse with Hartmut Haenchen, and Glanert’s Solaris for Oper Köln with Lothar Zagrosek.
He also collaborates with the German team of director Ralf Pleger and sculptor and designer Alexander Polzin, the most recent projects include co-productions of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and a dance version of Mozart's Mitridate. He has also previously worked with director Cristina Pezzoli on Puccini’s Le Villi.
‘I start with a huge rock, made up of many scenes and ideas. Then I sculpt it, removing everything that is not coherent, taking pieces away and only keeping the most important, beautiful jewels’
