by Rodrigo Fonseca

“The meteoric trajectory of the Brazilian lyrical singer on the European music scene, especially in Germany, inspires a delicate documentary investigation carried out by the journalist and filmmaker Yves Goulart, who was born in the same city as the songbird he pays homage to in a collection of archive images and testimonies: Urussanga, Brazil.”

“The most charming thing Aldo brought to music was his mastery of various styles. He mastered Mozart, Bach, Rossini, Verdi, Mahler, Villa-Lobos, Claudio Santoro, among others, with excellence and a technique that respected the eras of each composer. Therefore, his recordings serve as a reference to this day for students, researchers and admirers of lyrical singing.”

“All of this material, covering more than four thousand hours, was almost moldy, but it was digitized in Berlin to be used in the documentary, besides the 70 cassette tapes recorded live at the concerts, which Aldo insisted on recording. I asked Irene why all these recordings were made and she replied that it was for his collection and, mainly, to study his own technique. At first, this immense amount of material made me anxious about how to tell Aldo’s story without losing the essence of his biography. Irene was essential during the process of selecting the material used in the documentary and, in addition, she is responsible for the musical direction. Without her, the precise fit of the songs into the film’s narrative would not have been possible. For each moment or situation in the script, music acts as a guiding thread. I didn’t want to make a documentary just about talking heads, but rather, use the songs he sang as elements to tell his story. That’s why I call the film an operatic documentary.”