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).
