Música para a troca das princesas: Estudo comparativo das obras dramáticas comemorativas do duplo enlace entre as monarquias ibéricas (1785)

Abstract

When studying the formal evolution of the court serenatas composed by João de Sousa Carvalho between 1777 and 1792, my attention was drawn to the last of his large scale dramatic compositions, Nettuno ed Egle, because it has been catalogued both by Brito (1989) and Santos Luiz (1999) as an opera. The fact is that it included a licenza and was composed for a specific event, which are clear characteristics of the serenata genre. The event was the double marriage in 1785 between the Iberian courts and the festivities included four other large dramatic musical works specifically prepared for the event, three of which are entitled ‘serenata’ in period sources. The purpose of this article is to compare the libretti, musical scores, expense reports and other period descriptions related to these five works in order to create an image that helps us better to understand the practices of the court serenata in the time of Maria I and the true function of these artistic manifestations.