Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes was among the many musicians
who travelled to Italy to master the language and the rules of operatic
works. He studied in Milan and succeeded in having a few operas staged
at Italian venues, before returning to Brazil where he was hailed as the
most famous living national composer. Gomes felt compelled to commit
his work to the country’s anti-slave cause, which was still legal
practice then.
Lo schiavo was therefore conceived as a politically engaged work.
However, the issue was rather volatile and the composer had to change
the contemporary time setting to a more distant one. In Brazil the opera
was a triumph, but elsewhere it failed to gain popularity and soon fell
into oblivion. This recording of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari’s
production documents the opera’s first performance in modern times and
reveals Gomes’ flamboyant richness of melodic creativity, his sound
grasp of construction, and a technical mastery of the theatrical
mechanisms that are always of the highest level.
‘The most popular title of the entire Brazilian repertoire. The most
represented and, perhaps, the most loved one.’ (John Neschling,
conductor)
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