João de Sousa Carvalho

João de Sousa Carvalho ( born February 22, 1745 in Estremoz, Portugal, † in Lent 1799 in the Alentejo, Portugal ) was a Portuguese Baroque and Rococo composer.

Life and work

The musically gifted boy was born in 1745 as son of Paulo de Carvalho and Ana Maria Angelina. At the age of eight he was given in 1753 in the Music Conservatory Colegio dos Santos Reis in Vila Viçosa, the music capital of Portugal. At the age of fifteen, he came in 1761 to the Colegio Sant Onofrio di Capua at Naples, where he continued sit Joseph I.seine training under the patronage of the Portuguese king Dom. Since 1766, at the age of twenty-one years, his opera " La Nitteti " at the Teatro delle Dame no Carnaval was premiered. The libretto was written by the then famous Italian poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio. Just one year later, in 1767, he returned to Portugal to continue to operate only in his homeland.

There he became the official music teacher of the Infante of Portugal and Professor of counterpoint music at the Episcopal Seminary in Lisbon. In 1778 he was - until his death, the official " Maestro " of the Portuguese king, that is, the official court composer of the crown. Most of the works that emerged during this period, were commissions for official occasions.

Significant was also his opera " Testoride Argonauta " from 1780, because it was written on the official inauguration of the Palace of Queluz and performed.

He was a famous, respected composer. In 1783 he married to rich conditions, so that he and his wife could afford stately goods and lived on, in the Algarve and the Alentejo. In the Alentejo, the composer died of unknown causes in the Lent of 1799.

Although many works have been lost, a large part of the work is still quite well documented by copies. Thus, the dramatic work consisted of 16 pieces: 5 operas, 10 sonatas and a cantata. The sacred and spiritual work consists of three hymns, two arias, ten masses, four psalms, an oratorio, a motet. The best-known piece here is the 1769 resulting spiritual work " Te Deum ". The mundane work includes a few secular arias, a duet, a Covatina, a sonnet.

Work (selection)

• La Nitteti, opera, 1766, premiere Naples.
• L ` amore industrioso, opera, 1769, premiere Lisbon Teatro Palacio de Ajuda.
• Te Deum, spiritual work, in 1769.
• L ` Eume, opera, in 1773.
• Testoride Argonauta, opera, 1780, at the opening of the Palacio de Queluz in the presence of the reigning Queen of Portugal, Dona Maria da Gloria I..

Swell

• Composer ( Portugal)
• Composer ( Baroque)
• Portuguese
• Born in 1745
• Died in 1799
• Man