Lisboa, terra dos sorrisos (1938-45): A ópera e a opereta sob a alçada totalitária

Abstract

Between 1934 and 1946, Lisbon’s operatic activity was residual while the future of lyric art was debated and decided outside the São Carlos Theater. This untheatrical history of opera enunciates a turning point in the institution of opera in the city which is the object of this essay. Operatic life in Lisbon from the 1940’s onwards crystallizes a new idea of art which outwardly pronounces its fidelity to the tradition of opera and the São Carlos Theater, it’s Lisbon house, but which stands for a constellation of values and behaviors that are, in reality, new to the theater and which naturalize within it the new habits of totalitarian life. This essay reflects on the history of sung theater in Lisbon and considers how the discourse about opera and operetta, as well as their institutional practices, are fine-tuned and coordinated to serve the totalitarian project put into action during the period of the Estado Novo. In parallel, the essay also investigates the irregular aspects of the city’s daily and operatic life and considers the political value which theatricality, a fundamental element of the actor’s and singer’s technical arsenal, adds to the experience of sung theater governed by authoritarian affect and expectation. Finally, the centrality of the actor-singer and the importance of improvisation as an element of political resistance to authoritarian rule in the theater are investigated here with reference to documentation found in the estate of the tenor Tomás Alcaide, deposited at the Museu Nacional da Música in Lisbon.