Marcos Portugal

Origin

Lisboa, Portugal

Also known as

Marco Portogallo

Years Active

1776–1830

Genres

classical music, sacred music, opera, modinha

Instruments

organ

Biography

Marcos António da Fonseca Portugal, born in Lisbon in 1762, was a renowned classical music composer, organist, and music teacher who developed an important part of his career in Brazil. Entering the Royal Seminary of Music of the Patriarchal of Lisbon in childhood, he stood out in Europe during the 1790s with his comic operas staged in Italy and other European countries. His production spans dozens of operas, in addition to a vast body of sacred works and modinhas that circulated through various international collections.

Summoned by Prince Regent Dom João, Portugal moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1811 to act as master and composer of the Royal Chamber, in addition to teaching members of the royal family. With independence and the promulgation of the Constitution of 1824, he naturalized as a Brazilian citizen and continued to serve the Empire and Dom Pedro I until the end of his life, passing away in Rio de Janeiro in 1830. Historiography has at times placed him in a supposed rivalry with the Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia, although modern research reevaluates and values the importance of both for the Luso-Brazilian musical heritage.

In recent decades, academic initiatives and musicology projects have rescued and cataloged his work, returning both his sacred pieces and his dramatic compositions to concert halls. His trajectory represents a significant bridge between the musical culture of the European court and the development of concert music in colonial and imperial Brazil.

Discography

• Armando José Fernandes, Marcos Portugal, Joly Braga Santos - Orquestra Filarmónica de Lisboa, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Nella Maissa – Concerto em Si Bemol / Abertura Sinfónica N.º 3 / Il Duca Di Foix (1975)
• João Domingos Bomtempo • João de Sousa Carvalho • António Leal Moreira • Marcos Portugal / Orquestra Clássica do Porto • Meir Minsky – Carvalho/ Portugal/ Moreira/ Bomtempo (1994)
• Marcos Portugal, City Of London Sinfonia, Álvaro Cassuto – Le Donne Cambiate (1999)
• Marcos Portugal – City Of London Sinfonia, Álvaro Cassuto – As Damas Trocadas (The Mistress And The Maid Or The Triumph Of Humility) (2001)
• Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga • Seixas • Carvalho • Moreira • Portugal / Algarve Orchestra • Álvaro Cassuto – Spanish And Portuguese Orchestral Music (2003)
• Marcos Portugal, Coro de Câmara de Lisboa, Teresita Gutierrez Marques – Missa Grande (2009)
• Ensemble Turicum, Marcos Portugal – Matinas do Natal - Rio de Janeiro 1811 (2009)
• Marcos Portugal, Caroline Marçot, Chœur L'Échelle, Bruno Procopio & Charles Barbier – Outre-Mers (2012)
• Marcos Portugal - Ensemble Turicum, Mathias Weibel, Luiz Alves de Silva – Vésperas de Nossa Senhora In C Major / Missa a Quatro In F Major (2014)
• A.L.Moreira - A.C. da Silva Pereira - M. Portugal - J. de Sousa Carvalho / Cremilde Rosado Fernandes, Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian, Gianfranco Rivoli – Portugaliae Musica Orchesterwerke Portugiesischer Meister