Portugal, Marcos Antônio da Fonseca (1762–1830)

Marcos Antônio da Fonseca Portugal (b. 24 March 1762; d. 7 February 1830), Portuguese composer and conductor. Born in Lisbon, Marcos Antônio, as he was called in Portugal, was admitted at the age of nine to Lisbon's Seminário Patriarchal, where he studied composition with João Souza de Carvalho. His first composition, a Miserere, was written at the age of fourteen. On 23 July 1783 he was admitted to the fraternity of musicians, the Brotherhood of Saint Cecilia, and between the years 1785 and 1792 wrote six comic operas.

A royal grant in 1792 made it possible for him to go to Italy, where he wrote twenty-one operas. Performances of his more successful operas in Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, England, and Russia established Marcos Antônio Portugal, as he called himself at this time, as a prestigious composer with an international reputation. Appointed in 1800 as mestre de capela of the royal chapel and director of the São Carlos opera in Lisbon, he produced his own operas as well as adaptations of Italian operas.

When Napoleon invaded Portugal and the royal court fled to Brazil in 1807, Marcos Antônio Portugal remained in Lisbon and composed a work honoring Napoleon on his birthday, which earned him the title of "turncoat." After the French left Lisbon, Marcos Antônio Portugal sailed to Brazil and received an appointment as mestre de capela of the royal chapel in Rio de Janeiro. He contributed to the rich musical life of the city during the period preceding Brazilian independence in 1822, after which the economic problems of the new nation severely limited funds for musical activities. Portugal died in Rio de Janeiro in 1830, the same year as Padre José Maurício Nunes Garcia, the Brazilian composer who had also served as mestre de capela.

See alsoMusic: Art Music; Napoleon I.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Enciclopédia da música brasileira (1977); New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Schultz, Kirsten. Tropical Versailles: Empire, Monarchy, and the Portuguese Royal Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808–1821. New York: Routledge, 2001.

                                           David P. Appleby