Antônio Carlos Gomes

 

Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896) has sometimes been called the ‘Brazilian Verdi’. Not without reason: not only his music, but also his strongly nationalistic themes are strongly reminiscent of his Italian colleague.

Il Guarany

I am a great lover of his operas and I don’t think I am the  only one. I am therefore very surprised that his operas do not enjoy the fame they deserve. While he was very successful during his lifetime, nowadays he is pretty much completely forgotten, although his operas dó still get performed here and there.

Plácido Domingo has always been the greatest champion of Gomes’ music and it is only thanks to him that Il Guarany was performed in Bonn in 1994 and recorded live by Sony (66273).

Admittedly, the libretto is occasionally a bit ridiculous. Just imagine two rival Indian tribes, both fighting Portuguese nobles, Spanish adventurers and each other. Cannibals also pass by, gold mines are robbed and castles set on fire, and in between, a beautiful white woman runs off with the Indian chief, but first, of course, he has to be baptised. It is impossible to recreate, but the music is so divine!

© Basia Jaworski

Domingo sings Pery, the Guarany chief with a tremendous sense of style that automatically makes you sit up and listen. A dragon of a role, but he makes it believable.

I have never been a great admirer of Verónica Villaroel (Cecilia) and here too she sounds a bit pinched. Carlos Álvarez, on the other hand, is very good as Gonzales and the rest of the cast is also fine.

Below is the opera’s finale:

Maybe I’m a bit biased (I was there!), but I highly recommend the recording to all of you.

Colombo

The Italian company Bongiovanni (GB 2429-2) released Gomes’ Colombo in 2008. The ‘Brazilian Verdi’ composed the work, a four-part cantata, to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.
Colombo is a very surprising work. The music is so evocative that even without the libretto – enclosed in a very informative textbook – you can imagine exactly what the story is about.

The work was recorded live at Teatro Massimo in Catania in May 2006, starring the highly charismatic baritone Alexandru Agache.

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