On 29 November 1807, on the eve before Napoleon's army occupied Lisbon,the Portuguese court set sail for Brazil. Rio de Janeiro became the newcapital of the Império Portugues, which led to profound social and culturaltransformations in the city and a redefinition of the colony's political framework.Five months before the premiere of Da Ponte's and Mozart's Don Giovannion 20 September 1821, King John VI returned to Lisbon, appointing his sonPedro as Prince Regent. Pedro remained in Brazil with his wife, Leopoldina, thedaughter of Emperor Francis I. Little more than a year later, on 2 September1822, under the presidency of Pedro's wife Leopoldina, the Council of Stateapproved Brazil's secession from Portugal, paving the way for independenceand the rise of a new empire.Against this historical background, this volume traces the development ofopera in Brazil from the mid-eighteenth century to the reign of Emperor Pedro I,situating it within its wider cultural and political context. The analysis of the1821 Rio premiere of Don Giovanni is complemented by examinations of thework's subsequent American debuts in Buenos Aires (1827) and Mexico City (1828).
