Opera in the Tropics: Music and Theater in Early Modern Brazil

This book is an exploration of the musico-theatrical practices in Brazil
from the Jesuit morality plays of the sixteenth century to the Italian
operas celebrating the new independent nation in the 1820s, as expressed
by the creative minds and bodies of actors, singers, poets, and
composers. The book shows how the threefold goal of instructing,
entertaining, and distracting the population—which a Brazilian producer
spelled out in 1825—had been present in diverse combinations since the
early colonial period, at the hands of missionaries, intellectuals,
bureaucrats, political leaders, and cultural producers. The six chapters
approach these issues from different perspectives, while offering a
comprehensive view of the multiple aspects of musico-dramatic production
in Portuguese America. Individual chapters discuss the foundations of
Brazilian musical theater in the appropriation and adaptation of Iberian
autos and comédias, the creation of a distinctive type of Portuguese
comic opera by a Brazilian playwright during the early eighteenth
century, the extant musical sources, and the sociopolitical context that
determined the opening of dozens of opera houses during the second half
of the eighteenth century. While showing a remarkable continuity
between theatrical practices in Portugal and those in its largest
colony, through the circulation of artists and repertory, this book also
demonstrates notable differences in the ethnic and gender profile of
theatrical workers; in the modifications determined by local tastes,
priorities, and materials; and in the political use of theater as an
ideological and civilizing tool.
Keywords: musical theater,
opera,
Brazil,
Portugal,
European colonialism,
race