Sábato Magaldi

Origin

Belo Horizonte, MG

Genres

theater, theater criticism

Biography

Sábato Antonio Magaldi was born in Belo Horizonte on May 9, 1927, establishing himself throughout his career as one of the country's most important theater critics, journalists, historians, and essayists. The son of Italian immigrants, he began his intellectual life at a very young age, founding the magazine Edifício in 1946 alongside fundamental names in Brazilian literature and thought, such as Hélio Pellegrino, Paulo Mendes Campos, Otto Lara Resende, and Autran Dourado. He graduated with a law degree from UFMG in 1949, but his true vocation was directed toward the stage and dramaturgical reflection, writing his first review before even turning twenty.

Throughout his career, Magaldi held positions of great cultural and academic prominence, working as a theater critic for enormously relevant press outlets, such as Diário Carioca, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, and Jornal da Tarde. In the academic field, he taught at the School of Dramatic Art (EAD) and the University of São Paulo (USP), where he created the pioneering discipline of History of Brazilian Theater and earned the title of full professor. His literary and historiographical production was consolidated in fundamental, mandatory reference works, such as Panorama do Teatro Brasileiro and his profound studies on crucial playwrights of our culture, like Oswald de Andrade and Nelson Rodrigues, whom he helped consecrate as the founder of modern theater in Brazil.

Internationally recognized and honored with decorations from the French government, Sábato also played a strong institutional role when he became the first municipal secretary of culture in São Paulo during the administration of Olavo Setúbal. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, to which he was elected in 1994 occupying Chair No. 24, he maintained his intellectual activity until the final years of his life. He passed away in São Paulo on July 14, 2016, leaving a vast legacy of essays and reviews that continue to guide the study of the performing arts in Brazil.