Marcos Portugal

Marcos António da Fonseca Portugal (24 March 1762 – 17 February 1830), known in Italy as Marco Portogallo, was a Portuguese and Brazilian classical composer, organist and music teacher. His comic operas were staged in Italy and across Europe during the 1790s and early nineteenth century. In Portugal and Brazil, his sacred music was more familiar than his stage works.

Portugal entered the Royal Patriarchal Music Seminary at the age of nine and was appointed organist of the Patriarchal Church in 1782. He wrote Portuguese-language comic theater for the Teatro do Salitre before leaving for Italy in 1792. Between 1793 and 1800 he composed twenty-one operas for Italian theaters. Back in Lisbon, he became a music director at the Teatro de São Carlos, taught at the Patriarchal Seminary and wrote for the royal household. Prince Regent John summoned him to Rio de Janeiro in 1811, where he served as Master and Composer of the Royal Chamber and taught the royal children. Portugal stayed in Rio after the king returned to Lisbon in 1821. He became a Brazilian citizen under the 1824 constitution and continued to serve Pedro I and the imperial family until his death.

His catalog contains more than seventy dramatic works, including about forty operas. He wrote short Portuguese comedies and intermezzos, followed by Italian comic operas and serious works for São Carlos. The comic operas circulated most widely, often in translated or altered versions, while singers carried individual arias into concerts. His sacred output runs from the Miserere he composed at fourteen to a Missa breve written for the Brazilian imperial household in 1824. Portugal also composed modinhas, music for dynastic and political occasions, and singing and keyboard exercises for his royal pupils.

Portugal probably completed his studies in 1782. On 17 August that year he was appointed organist of the Patriarchal Church. His first known commission from the royal household, a mass for the feast of Saint Barbara, was performed at the Palace of Queluz in December. He joined Lisbon's Brotherhood of Saint Cecilia as a composer and organist on 23 July 1783.

Teatro do Salitre and the Lisbon court, 1784–1792

Portugal had probably taken charge of the music at Lisbon's Teatro do Salitre by 1784, although the date of his appointment is unknown. The theater presented comic works in Portuguese that drew on Italian models. Portugal supplied short comedies and intermezzos, followed by the two-act burlettas A esposa fingida in 1790, Os viajantes ditosos in 1791 and O mundo da lua in 1792. He also wrote pieces for performances marking royal birthdays and other court occasions. His catalog lists eleven such works from 1787 to 1789.

His theater work did not replace his duties at the Patriarchal Church. His organist's pay continued, and from 1 September 1787 he received an annual supplement of 50,000 réis for his work as a composer. He composed sacred music for the royal chapels at Queluz and Ajuda, including masses written by order of the future John VI, who took charge of the government in 1792. By that year Portugal was working for the church, the public theater and the royal household.

Career in Italy, 1792–1800

On 11 September 1792 Portugal received a passport for Genoa. It stated that he was traveling through Italy to perfect his art, and he retained his Portuguese court appointments and pay while abroad. He traveled with Giovanni Torriani, an Italian singer who had worked at the Teatro do Salitre. Portugal's Italian career consisted of two stays, from late 1792 to the middle of 1794 and from the summer of 1795 to 1800, separated by about a year in Lisbon.

His first Italian opera, Le confusioni della somiglianza o siano i due gobbi, opened at the Teatro degli Intrepidi in Florence on 8 May 1793. Productions in Florence, Venice and Milan followed, among them Cinna, Rinaldo d'Aste, Lo spazzacamino principe, Demofoonte and La vedova raggiratrice. Portugal returned to Lisbon in 1794, where he prepared Portuguese versions of Lo spazzacamino principe and Rinaldo d'Aste and wrote music for the royal chapels.

A second passport, issued on 22 July 1795, named Portugal's wife, Maria Joana Portugal, his sister Clara Fortunata and a servant as his traveling companions. Venice became his main base, with productions also mounted in Naples, Florence, Verona, Ferrara and Milan. His output was concentrated in comic opera, including La donna di genio volubile, Le donne cambiate, L'oro non compra amore and La pazza giornata, ovvero Il matrimonio di Figaro. His final Italian premiere was the serious opera Idante, first given at La Scala in Milan on 13 February 1800. He had composed twenty-one operas for Italian theaters in less than seven years. Those works soon entered the repertory of opera houses elsewhere in Europe.

At São Carlos, Portugal worked alongside the Italian composer Valentino Fioravanti. From 1803 to the Carnival season of 1807, Portugal was chiefly responsible for serious opera and Fioravanti for comic opera. Portugal wrote ten serious operas for the soprano Angelica Catalani between 1801 and 1806, including La morte di Semiramide, La morte di Mitridate and Artaserse. Catalani took arias from his operas into her concert repertory and sang them after leaving Portugal, helping to bring the music to audiences in London, Dublin and Paris.

The prince regent increasingly based his household at the Palace of Mafra from 1806. For services there, Portugal wrote more than twenty sacred works in 1806 and 1807, scored for the male voices of the Franciscan friars and the palace basilica's six organs. On 18 January 1807 he received the title of Master and Composer of the Royal Chamber. He was never formally appointed master of the Royal Chapel.

When the Portuguese court left for Brazil on 29 November 1807 to escape the French invasion, Portugal remained in Lisbon. The disruption closed the Patriarchal Seminary and halted part of his salary. In August 1808, under the French occupation, a general commissioned him to write a new setting of Demofoonte for Napoleon's birthday. The opera was performed at São Carlos on 15 August, two days before the Anglo-Portuguese victory at Roliça. After the French withdrawal, Portugal directed music for the thanksgiving celebrations held in Lisbon.

The government first placed Portugal on a list of musicians to be sent to Rio de Janeiro in August 1810. A personal summons from the prince regent followed on 7 January 1811. Portugal sailed from Lisbon in March aboard the frigate Princesa Carlota and reached Rio on 11 June.

The royal court in Rio de Janeiro, 1811–1821

The Teatro Real de São João in Rio de Janeiro, where several of Portugal's works were performed. Painting by Jean-Baptiste Debret, c. 1834.

On 23 June 1811, Portugal was confirmed as Master and Composer of the Royal Chamber and music teacher to the prince regent's children. He received 480,000 réis a year for those duties, a housing allowance of 240,000 réis and the salary still attached to his Lisbon seminary post. The royal household also provided a carriage for his teaching visits. Portugal suffered a stroke in October 1811 that impaired one arm, but he resumed his work.

Portugal did not displace José Maurício Nunes Garcia as master of the Royal Chapel. Nunes Garcia managed the chapel's personnel and routine services, while Portugal composed and directed music for royal ceremonies and other occasions of the highest rank. Fortunato Mazziotti joined the chapel's leadership in 1816. The familiar story of a personal feud between Portugal and Nunes Garcia first appeared after both men had died.

An order of 9 October 1811 gave Portugal authority over the music whenever the prince regent attended a public theater. He could choose the work, cast the singers, select the players and supervise rehearsals. The Real Theatro de São João opened in 1813 and staged operas he had written in Europe. He composed little new theatrical music in Rio. His stage works there included the short Portuguese farce A saloia namorada in 1812 and L'augurio di felicità, written for the 1817 marriage celebrations of Prince Pedro and Archduchess Leopoldina.

For his lessons, Portugal assembled a Breve e facil rezumo de todas as regras da cantoria and solfeggio exercises for the royal children. The teaching material drew on excerpts from his operas and included short songs and instrumental pieces. Copies made for the lessons bear the names of Pedro and the princesses Maria Isabel, Maria Francisca de Assis and Isabel Maria.

Imperial Brazil and final years, 1821–1830

Portugal continued to serve Prince Pedro, who declared Brazilian independence in 1822 and became emperor as Pedro I. By remaining in the country, Portugal became a Brazilian citizen under the Constitution of 1824. His known works from the decade include a setting of Evaristo da Veiga's Hino da Independência do Brasil and the Missa breve, written by imperial order in December 1824.

A decree of 10 December 1824 confirmed Portugal as music teacher to the imperial family from 1 January 1825, with an annual salary of 480,000 réis. He also received 625,000 réis for work connected with the Imperial Chapel. He taught Pedro's daughters, including the future Maria II of Portugal and Januária, and continued to direct music for imperial ceremonies. An English visitor, Robert Walsh, saw him giving Januária a lesson in April 1829.

Music

Portugal's catalog contains more than seventy dramatic works, including about forty operas. The thematic catalog of the sacred music has 138 entries, of which 32 are doubtful, spurious or contrafacta. His theater music is concentrated between his work for the Teatro do Salitre in the mid-1780s and his last Lisbon opera in 1808. Sacred composition extended from the Miserere of 1776 to the Missa breve written for the Brazilian imperial household in December 1824. He also composed Portuguese songs, music for dynastic and political occasions, and teaching repertory for the royal family.

Dramatic works

Portuguese-language theater

Portugal composed three two-act Portuguese-language operas for the Salitre: A noiva fingida and Os viajantes ditosos in 1790, and O lunático iludido in 1791. In his later autobiographical work list, he called the first and third A esposa fingida and O mundo da lua and dated the latter two works one year later. All three libretti were translations or adaptations of Italian texts. A noiva fingida used Giuseppe Palomba's Le trame deluse, Os viajantes ditosos used Filippo Livigni's I viaggiatori felici, and O lunático iludido used Carlo Goldoni's Il mondo della luna.

These works set Italian opera in Portuguese. They did not use the spoken dialogue found in opéra comique or Singspiel. O lunático iludido used recitative for its dialogue, a method consistent with the Italian models and the one number now known from the group. That number is Pancrácio's buffa aria "Já por ti minha amada esposinha" from Os viajantes ditosos, held at the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa.

Italian comic opera

Portugal wrote twenty-one operas for Italian theaters between 1793 and 1800. Most were comic farse, drammi giocosi or commedie per musica. His first Italian opera, Le confusioni della somiglianza o siano i due gobbi, opened in Florence in May 1793. By the end of that year it had been mounted in at least nine other Italian cities and in Dresden. Productions followed in Barcelona, Corfu and Vienna in 1794, and German performances continued into the 1810s.

The comic operas traveled farther than his Italian serious operas. Lo spazzacamino principe, first given at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice in 1794, reached Lisbon, Dresden, Vienna, Barcelona, Hamburg, Leipzig and London, as well as Italian theaters, and was still being staged in Milan in 1819. La donna di genio volubile was the most frequently mounted opera of his Italian period. Le donne cambiate and La pazza giornata, ovvero Il matrimonio di Figaro also moved beyond their first Venetian productions.

Catalani carried La morte di Semiramide, L'Argenide o sia il ritorno di Serse and La morte di Mitridate to London. Other singers took Artaserse and L'oro non compra amore back to Italian stages. Of the operas written in Lisbon, L'oro non compra amore had the widest run, with productions in Italy, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Munich. In Rio de Janeiro, Portugal supervised revivals of L'oro non compra amore in 1811 and Artaserse in 1812. He wrote no new full-scale opera there. His new dramatic pieces were the short Portuguese farce A saloia namorada in 1812 and the court serenata Augurio di felicità in 1817.

The Missa Grande in E-flat, probably written between 1782 and 1790 for Queluz, is an early example of his large concerted style. It calls for six soloists, choir and orchestra, sets an extended Gloria in contrasting movements, and uses fugue in the choral writing. Portugal later reduced the orchestral version for organ or continuo. The alternative scoring made the work usable by a royal chapel, parish church or provincial ensemble.

At Mafra, Portugal wrote about thirty works between 1804 and November 1807, chiefly during the court's residence there in 1806 and 1807. They were scored for the male voices of the Arrábida friars and the basilica's six organs. The music includes masses, psalms and matins. Portugal later recast thirteen Mafra pieces for the Royal Chapel in Rio, replacing the all-male voices and organ ensemble with mixed voices and orchestra, or with the smaller combination of two cellos, two bassoons and organ.

The Rio court

Music for the Royal Chapel in Rio used the personnel available for each service. High-ranking royal ceremonies could draw on an enlarged chorus and full orchestra. The hiring of Italian castrati in 1816 and 1817 gave Portugal soloists for whom he wrote long, technically demanding lines, and he sometimes entered their names in the score. Works made for ordinary services or smaller chapels used reduced forces. Revisions of earlier music were a regular part of this work, not exceptional substitutions.

Secular vocal, ceremonial and pedagogical music

Modinhas and songs

Portugal is the composer of twelve securely documented modinhas. Nine were published in the Lisbon periodical Jornal de Modinhas between 1792 and 1795. The other three are "Sinto, Amor, de dia em dia", published in 1801, "Quando minha Márcia bela" and "Marília, teus olhos". They are written for one or two voices with keyboard, apart from "Perdoar com condições", which uses two mandolins and harpsichord. One song, "Così dolce amante sposo", has an Italian text and a bass line instead of a written keyboard part.

The songs do not follow one fixed design. Some duets set the voices in parallel thirds and sixths, while the solo songs use more ornament and allow the keyboard to answer the vocal phrases. A slow first section followed by a quicker refrain occurs often but not in every song. "Moda do saboeiro" began as a theater number and was reused in Lo spazzacamino principe and its Portuguese adaptation. "Fui me confessar" moved in the other direction: after publication in the Jornal de Modinhas, its themes entered a trio in Le confusioni della somiglianza.

The twelve-song Marília de Dirceu cycle once assigned to Portugal is not accepted in the modern catalog. No musical source connects the cycle to him, and its style differs from his documented songs. Among the pieces grouped under that title, only "Marília, teus olhos" remains under his name.

Four ceremonial hymns are known with music. The Hymno Patriótico, probably composed in 1809, was printed in Lisbon in 1810 for massed voices and military band. Its words referred first to the prince regent and resistance to the French invasion, then changed for John VI, Miguel I and later political occasions. By 1826 it was in use as a Portuguese national anthem, although the monarchy then had no statutory anthem. Its often-repeated derivation from the closing hymn of the 1809 cantata La speranza, o sia l'augurio felice is uncertain because the two texts use different meters.

Portugal also composed a hymn of thanks to Lord Wellington, a hymn for the acclamation of John VI and a setting of Evaristo da Veiga's Hino Constitucional Brasiliense. The last text was written in Rio on 16 August 1822 and became known as the Hino da Independência do Brasil. Portugal's setting was sung for decades and remained in print in Brazil in the early twentieth century. Pedro I composed another setting in 1824, which subsequently became known as the Hino da Independência.

These works answered commissions from the royal or imperial household. Their texts follow the politics of the occasion, including commissions issued by opposing regimes during the French occupation and the restoration of Portuguese rule. They do not provide a reliable basis for assigning personal political views to the composer.

For lessons with Pedro and the infantas Maria Isabel, Maria Francisca de Assis and Isabel Maria, Portugal also prepared forty-seven operatic solos and ensembles with fortepiano, two overtures for solo keyboard, eight canzonette or ariette, and ten short keyboard pieces called motivos. About two-thirds of the opera selections came from works written for São Carlos. The arrangements usually retain the original vocal line while reducing the orchestra for fortepiano. Written-out appoggiaturas and ornaments supplied details that a professional singer might otherwise have improvised.

The teaching manuscripts are held chiefly by the National Library of Portugal, the Royal Palace Library in Madrid and the Imperial Museum in Petrópolis. Dedications name the royal pupil or pair of pupils for whom an excerpt was prepared. The Petrópolis album contains autograph music dedicated to Pedro and Maria Isabel. Albums and loose manuscripts in Lisbon hold music for their sisters.

Keyboard and organ music

Portugal's keyboard music is found in six manuscripts. A nineteenth-century manuscript titled Sonata e variações contains three separate pieces, a sonata in D major, a rondo in C major and a theme with six variations in E-flat major. An organ sonata in D major was probably written during the first decade of the nineteenth century. The Sinfonia para seis órgãos adapts the overture to L'oro non compra amore for the six organs of the Basilica of Mafra. It was probably prepared for Mafra in 1806 or 1807, although Portugal's authorship of the arrangement cannot be confirmed. The other manuscripts contain two overture reductions and ten motivos prepared for the royal children, as well as two minuets, one for four hands and one for solo keyboard.

Reception and legacy

Portugal's reputation changed sharply after his death. His comic operas moved quickly across Italian and central European stages during the 1790s, and singers carried arias from his Lisbon operas to London and Paris. The operas had largely left the repertory by the 1820s, while his sacred music remained in use in Portugal and Brazil into the early twentieth century. Nineteenth-century biographies also passed on factual errors and made Portugal the antagonist in a national story centered on José Maurício Nunes Garcia. Catalogs, archival studies, critical editions and new productions have altered that picture since the late twentieth century.

Contemporary European reception

Portugal's first Italian opera, Le confusioni della somiglianza o siano i due gobbi, opened in Florence in May 1793. The Gazzetta Universale reported repeated applause and encores. Before the end of the year, the opera had reached nine other Italian cities and Dresden. Barcelona, Corfu and Vienna followed in 1794, and German performances continued into the 1810s. Lo spazzacamino principe drew such enthusiasm at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice in 1794 that the management restored it after an attempted replacement. Productions reached Lisbon, Barcelona, Saint Petersburg, Hamburg, Leipzig and London, and the opera returned to Milan in 1819.

Opera and church music then followed different paths. European theaters had largely stopped mounting Portugal's operas by the 1820s. Copies, arrangements and four nineteenth-century print editions kept parts of the sacred repertory in circulation, chiefly in Portugal and Brazil. Church performances continued into the second decade of the twentieth century.

Personal life and death

Portugal was married to Maria Joana Portugal. His passport of 22 July 1795 is the earliest known reference to her. She survived him and petitioned Pedro I for a pension on 26 March 1830, writing that her husband's death had left her without adequate support. No children are securely documented.

In 1928 his remains were sent from the Convent of Saint Anthony in Rio to Lisbon for burial in the National Pantheon. Newspaper articles at the time disputed his character and patriotism, and the government postponed the burial. The urn was placed in the Church of Santa Isabel in 1931, the Lisbon parish where he had been baptized.

Portugal received dynastic commissions and supervised theater performances attended by the royal family. José Maurício's dated compositions decline in number in 1811, partly because Portugal assumed some of the court's demand for new music. Much of José Maurício's music is undated, and he kept his chapel office, salary and other musical work. He directed court musicians at public religious ceremonies in 1816 and 1819. No appointment made Portugal master of the Royal Chapel on his arrival. Official notices called him "Mestre de Suas Altezas Reais", or music master to the royal children. The 1829 almanac and chapel payroll are the first documents to give him the chapel-master title.

Critical editions have returned large sacred works to concert use. Marques edited the Missa Grande in 2009. The Chorus of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra performed its complete original orchestral version at the Centro Cultural de Belém in 2014 under Pedro Neves. In 2017 the National Library, CESEM and the Lisbon Chamber Choir issued critical editions of four sacred works that had been printed in the nineteenth century. The same musicians recorded them for a disc released in 2019.

Selected works

The following selection spans Portugal's Portuguese-language theater, Italian career, operas for the Teatro de São Carlos, and the two dramatic pieces that he wrote in Rio de Janeiro. Pastiches and titles whose authorship remains unresolved are omitted.

Dramatic works

+ Selected dramatic works Year Work Genre First performance 1790 A noiva fingida Portuguese-language opera Teatro do Salitre, Lisbon 1790 Os viajantes ditosos Portuguese-language opera Teatro do Salitre, Lisbon 1791 O lunático iludido Portuguese-language opera Teatro do Salitre, Lisbon 1793 Le confusioni della somiglianza, o siano i due gobbi Dramma giocoso Teatro degl'Intrepidi, Florence, 8 May 1794 Lo spazzacamino principe Commedia per musica Teatro San Moisè, Venice, 4 January 1794 Demofoonte Dramma per musica La Scala, Milan, 8 February 1796 La donna di genio volubile Dramma giocoso Teatro San Moisè, Venice, 5 October 1797 Le donne cambiate Farsa Teatro San Moisè, Venice, 22 October 1798 Fernando nel Messico Dramma per musica Teatro San Benedetto, Venice, 16 January 1798 Gli Orazi e i Curiazi Tragedia per musica Teatro Nuovo, Ferrara, 2 September 1798 Alceste Tragedia per musica La Fenice, Venice, 26 December 1799 La pazza giornata, ovvero il matrimonio di Figaro Dramma comico per musica Teatro San Benedetto, Venice, 26 December 1801 La morte di Semiramide Dramma serio Teatro de São Carlos, Lisbon, 23 December 1802 La Zaira Tragedia per musica Teatro de São Carlos, Lisbon, 19 February 1804 L'oro non compra amore Dramma giocoso Teatro de São Carlos, Lisbon, winter season 1806 La morte di Mitridate Tragedia per musica Teatro de São Carlos, Lisbon, 31 January 1806 Artaserse Dramma serio Teatro de São Carlos, Lisbon, 18 October 1812 A saloia namorada Portuguese-language farsa Quinta da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro 1817 Augurio di felicità, o sia il trionfo d'Amore Serenata Quinta da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro, 7 November

Sacred and ceremonial works

The selected sacred works run from Portugal's first dated composition in 1776 to his last dated score in December 1824. MarP numbers use António Jorge Marques's thematic catalog.

+ Selected sacred works Date or first documented performance Work MarP Destination or occasion 1776 Miserere for four voices and organ Written while Portugal was a pupil at the Patriarchal Seminary 1782–1790 Missa Grande in E-flat major 01.09 Probably written for the Royal Chapel at Queluz 1783–1784 Mass in B-flat major 01.17 Patriarchal Church, Lisbon 1802 Te Deum in D major 04.08 Queluz 1802 Matins for the Immaculate Conception in C major 03.05 Queluz 1806 Missa breve in E-flat major 01.19 Christmas at the Basilica of Mafra 1810 Missa festiva in F major 01.22 Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the Royal Chapel, Rio de Janeiro, 16 July 1816 Requiem in E-flat major 01.23 Funeral rites for Maria I, Rio de Janeiro, 22 and 23 April 1817–1818 Missa festiva in C major 01.21 Thanksgiving for the arrival of Archduchess Leopoldina in Rio de Janeiro 1818 Te Deum in B-flat major 04.11 Acclamation of John VI, Rio de Janeiro, 6 February 1824 Missa breve in G major 01.20 Commissioned by Pedro I in December, Portugal's last dated work

Portugal also composed secular music for royal birthdays, military events, dynastic ceremonies and the independence of Brazil. Four ceremonial hymns are extant.

+ Selected ceremonial works Year Work Occasion 1787 Licença pastoril Birthday of Maria Francisca Benedita, Teatro do Salitre, 25 July 1787 Pequeno drama Birthday of Maria I, Teatro do Salitre, 17 December 1808–1813 Hino de agradecimentos a Lord Wellington Hymn of thanks to Arthur Wellesley, dedicated to the Marquis of Vagos Hymno Patriótico da Nação Portugueza Portuguese patriotic hymn for voices and military band, first printed in 1810 1817 Hino para a feliz aclamação de S. M. F. o Senhor D. João VI Written for the acclamation of John VI, held in Rio de Janeiro in February 1818 1822 Hino da Independência do Brasil Evaristo da Veiga's text, sung at Pedro I's acclamation on 12 October