Reinhard Eisendle, Matthias J. Pernerstorfer, Suna Suner (eds.): „Don Giovanni“ in Rio de Janeiro. The Opera’s First Performance Beyond Europe (1821) and Its Cultural-Political Context, Wien: Hollitzer Verlag, 2026 (Don Juan Studies 2), 444 pages, 17 x 24 cm, English, Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-99094-261-1 (hbk) € 65,00
ISBN 978-3-99094-262-8 (pdf) € 64,99
„Don Giovanni“ in Rio de Janeiro
The Opera’s First Performance Beyond Europe (1821) and Its Cultural-Political Context
On 29 November 1807, on the eve before Napoleon’s army occupied Lisbon, the Portuguese court set sail for Brazil. Rio de Janeiro became the new capital of the Império Português, which led to profound social and cultural transformations in the city and a redefinition of the colony’s political framework. Five months before the premiere of Da Ponte’s and Mozart’s Don Giovanni on 20 September 1821, King John VI returned to Lisbon, appointing his son Pedro as Prince Regent. Pedro remained in Brazil with his wife, Leopoldina, the daughter of Emperor Francis I. Little more than a year later, on 2 September 1822, under the presidency of Pedro’s wife Leopoldina, the Council of State approved Brazil’s secession from Portugal, paving the way for independence and the rise of a new empire.
Against this historical background, this volume traces the development of opera in Brazil from the mid-eighteenth century to the reign of Emperor Pedro I, situating it within its wider cultural and political context. The analysis of the 1821 Rio premiere of Don Giovanni is complemented by examinations of the work’s subsequent American debuts in Buenos Aires (1827) and Mexico City (1828).
INHALT
HONOURS
Embassy of Brazil in Austria
H.E. Embaixador Eduardo Paes Saboia
Embassy of Portugal in Austria
H.E. Ambassador Jorge Silva Lopes
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Austria
H.E. Ambassador Teresa Indjein
Musica Brasilis – Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro
Rosana Lanzelotte
Divino Sospiro – Centro de Estudos Musicais Setecentistas de Portugal
Iskrena Yordanova
Mozarteum University Salzburg
Stefan David Hummel
Introduction
Reinhard Eisendle – Matthias J. Pernerstorfer – Suna Suner
I. OPERA IN THE TROPICS
Between Natural and Proper:
Refashioning Opera in Brazil (c.1750–1822)
Rogério Budasz (Riverside/CA)
Italian Opera and the Birth of Theatre Criticism in Rio de Janeiro
(1817–1831)
Fernando Santos Berçot (Rio de Janeiro)
II. LEOPOLDINA AND PEDRO:
ARTS, MUSIC, THEATRE AND POLITICS
Archduchess Leopoldine of Austria, First Empress of Brazil (1797–1826):
Her Childhood and Youth at the Court of Vienna
Käthe Springer-Dissmann (Vienna)
Empress Maria Leopoldina:
Political Action and the Art of Reigning
Paulo de Assunção (Lisbon)
The Musical Legacy of Pedro I of Brazil
Rosana Lanzelotte (Rio de Janeiro)
Opera of Independence:
An “Exhibition” in Two Acts
Julio Bandeira (Rio de Janeiro)
III. SIGISMUND NEUKOMM IN BRAZIL
Sigismund Neukomm on Tour:
Warm-Hearted, Curious, World Traveller
Herbert Lindsberger (Salzburg)
Sigismund Neukomm:
Ein österreichischer Komponist am brasilianischen Hof in Rio de Janeiro
Otto Biba (Vienna)
Sigismund von Neukomm and the Musical Construction
of the Voyage to Brazil (1816):
A Musically Documented Atlantic Crossing
Ricardo Bernardes (Lisbon)
IV. DON JUAN PERFORMANCES
IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE
Don Juan in the Contemporary World:
Some Reflections on a Changing Plot
Francesco Cotticelli (Naples)
Mozart tradito:
le versioni ottocentesche del Don Giovanni a Napoli
Paologiovanni Maione (Naples)
Don Giovanni Tenorio by Louis Henry at the San Carlo in Naples (1820)
Maria Venuso (Naples)
V. DA PONTE’S AND MOZART’S DON GIOVANNI
IN BRAZIL, ARGENTINA AND MEXICO
Don Giovanni and Rio de Janeiro:
The Fate of Mozart’s Masterpiece in the Brazilian Capital throughout
the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Rosana De Moraes Marreco Orsini Brescia (Lisbon)
Don Giovanni in Rio de Janeiro, 1821: Touching a White Map
Reinhard Eisendle – Hans Ernst Weidinger
Mozart americanizado:
The Premiere of Don Giovanni in Buenos Aires in 1827
Magnus Tessing Schneider (Gothenburg)
Opera Divos after Colonialism:
Don Giovanni in Mexico City
Francesco Milella (Madrid)
INDEX
Names
Places
Theatres
Musical and Poetic Works
