Since November of last year, Chico Buarque's name has been in the news quite a bit,
after an absence of five years. It started with the launching of his new CD, As Cidades
(The Cities) and has continued with the national tour starting in Rio. There had been
whispers, some not so softly, that he was washed up. Veja, one of the most widely
read magazines in Brazil, carried an article in November of 1998 stating that Chico
Buarque was in a creative crisis, and that As Cidades was an inferior CD. The
authors blamed it partly on his drinking, partly on the breakup of his marriage of thirty
years after some rumored extramarital affairs on his part.
The article was a mean-spirited attempt at trashing one of the great geniuses of
Brazilian music—a man chosen as the greatest by the other leading magazine, Isto
É, just recently. When this author visited Rio in January, there were no CDs to be
had in the stores, and Canecão was sold out with a few standing room tickets left. And
when Chico visited Salvador earlier this year for the christening of his grandchildren,
Chico and Clara, children of his daughter Helena and musician Carlinhos Brown, Baianos
flocked around him as they do to their local heroes, Caetano and Gil. As of March 16th,
http://www.musicboulevard.com has As
Cidades in their catalog. Log on, get it, listen, and form your own opinion. And now,
for the story of Chico, fasten your seatbelts.
On June 19th, 1944 at the maternity ward São Sebastião, Largo do Machado,
Rio de Janeiro, Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, Chico, was born the 4th of 7
children of historian and sociologist Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda and pianist Maria
Amélia Cesário Alvim. In 1946 the family moved to São Paulo where Sérgio accepted the
post of director of the Museu do Ipiranga.
At five, Chico already showed his interest in music with an album of pictures of
singers he had heard on the radio. And a year later, as the family was about to make a
voyage to Europe, young Chico said to his grandmother, "Grandma, you're very old, and
when I come back, I won't see you anymore, but I'm gonna be a singer on radio, and you
will be able to turn on the radio in Heaven if you miss me." In 1953, Sérgio was
invited to teach at the University of Rome, and the family moved to Italy. It was here
that Chico became tri-lingual. He spoke English in the American School, Portuguese at
home, and Italian in the streets. It was also here that he composed his first marchinhas
de carnaval, little Carnaval marches.
In the house in Rome, the eternally curious Chico would hide at the top of the stairs
after having been sent to bed and listen to conversations his parents had with friends,
such as the great poet Vinícius de Moraes. Later, the composer Chico Buarque would form a
partnership with the poet. About 1956, the family returned to São Paulo. His sister, Ana
Maria, Baía, remembers that Chico at the age of 12 or 13 composed some operettas
together with sister Miúcha, nicknamed Heloísa. The family moved to a big house
in Rua Buri, a couple of blocks from the stadium Pacaembu. Although he was a devoted fan
of the Fluminense club of Rio, his idol played for Santos. His name was Paulo César de
Araújo, Pagão, a name Chico still uses in homage to the star. Some of his friends joke
that Chico Buarque only turned to music because he didn't shine at soccer.
In school Chico showed great interest in the classic literature of France, Germany, and
Russia. His interest in Brazilian literature only started when someone criticized him for
not appearing to care about it. His budding interest in Brazilian literature might have
gone a little too far when he took a rare first edition of Macunaíma by Mário de
Andrade from his father's book case and paraded around campus with it. That earned him a
paternal reprimand.
Youth Follies
In 1958, influenced by a professor, he entered a religious movement called
Ultramontanos, a precursor of the ultraconservative organ TFP (Tradição, Família e
Propriedade—Tradition, Family and Property). His involvement with the Ultramontanos
grew to steady worry for his parents. He even abandoned playing soccer. Concerned, his
parents sent him to a boarding school in Cataguases, in the interior of Minas Gerais, for
a semester.
Upon returning to São Paulo, he also returned to his involvement in a religious
movement, this time one of a social nature called Organização Auxílio Fraterno
(Fraternal Aid Organization), which took food and other goods to the homeless.
Chico Buarque, who has never been a believer in charity as a solution to social ills,
describes this time as "an experience that kept him from becoming alienated."
It was also during this time that his interest in music flourished. His first love were
the traditional sambas of Noel Rosa, Ismael Silva, and Ataulfo Alves. However, he also
listened to such varied foreign artists as French Jacques Brel, Elvis Presley, and The
Platters. But it was "Chega de Saudade," Tom Jobim's song with João Gilberto's
revolutionary beat that turned Chico Buarque's musical world upside-down. In fact, he
drove the neighbors crazy playing the record incessantly. Even his sister, Miúcha, who
would later marry João Gilberto, could not put up with it.
His dream at this time was to "sing like João Gilberto, compose like Tom Jobim,
and write lyrics like Vinícius de Moraes." And he followed up his dream by composing
his first song, "Canção dos Olhos," (Song of the Eyes). The sixties expanded
his means of expression in that he published his first chronicles in the paper he called Verbâmidas
in Colégio Santa Cruz. It became his ambition to one day see his words in print in
the weekly magazines side by side with established writers.
He soon did get his wish of appearing in print, but not in the way he had imagined or
that would make his parents proud. His photo and that of a friend appeared on the pages of
Última Hora (Last Hour), a São Paulo newspaper, eyes covered because of their
ages, when they stole a car to do some early morning joyriding _ a favorite pastime of
teens then and now. His parents, however, were not amused, and young Chico was grounded at
night until he turned 18.
In 1963, Chico Buarque was matriculated at FAU (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo of
the University of São Paulo). But with the military coup in 1964 came repression of all
institutions of learning, and after Chico had studied for 3 years, he abandoned his
studies and destroyed the dream of his maternal grandmother, Maria do Carmo that her
grandson go on to design cities.
Not all the events of 1964, however, were negative. It was also the year in which Chico
Buarque first set foot on stage to sing. This happened at Colégio Santa Cruz, and he sang
his own "Canção dos Olhos" (Song of the Eyes). The song "Tem Mais
Samba" (There is More Samba), made for the musical Balanço de Orfeu, is one
that Chico today considers the starting point of his career.
It is also during this time that the groundwork is laid for the craze of the music
festivals. The most famous of the shows was the one presented at the Paramount on Avenida
Brigadeiro Luís Antônio in São Paulo. At the show O Fino da Bossa under the
leadership of Elis Regina, were introduced such luminaries and future stars as Alaíde
Costa, Zimbo Trio, Oscar Castro Neves, Jorge Ben, Nara Leão, Sérgio Mendes, and Os
Cariocas. At Colégio Santa Cruz, the show Primeira Audição (First Audition),
made room for musicians of the new generation. Chico Buarque presented here his new song
"Marcha para um Dia de Sol," (March toward a day of sunshine).
1965 saw his first single "Pedro Pedreiro," (Pedro the Stonemason) and
"Sonho de um Carnaval," (Dream of a Carnaval), arrive on the market.
"Sonho" was the first song entered into a festival at TV Excelsior. The song,
sung and subsequently recorded by Geraldo Vandré, did not classify.
Chico also tried his hand at acting and appeared with Eva Wilma and John Herbert on a
soap on TV Tupi, Prisioneiro do Sonho (Prisoner of the dream), in which he played
"one of those performers of bossa nova." He wrote the music for the poem
"Morte e Vida Severina" by João Cabral de Melo Neto whose production won praise
by critics and public in Nancy, France.
It was in 1965, at the João Sebastião Bar, a Paulista stronghold for bossa
nova, that Chico met Gilberto Gil for the first time. Later, the same year, he met
Caetano Veloso, who was very enthusiastic about hearing Olê, Olá in a show. The
basement of the architectural faculty was often the site of parties and musical
encounters, and it was here that Chico became familiar with Taiguara and João do Vale,
composer of the famous "Carcará."
Inspired and encouraged by previous successes, TV Record launched the program Fino
da Bossa with a special segment called First Audition, which allowed the appearance of
new composers. Chico found out what it meant to be a professional musician. He received
his first pay, 50,000 cruzeiros, about $30 for his participation in O Momento da
Bossa promoted by Walter Silva.
At the second Festival de Música Popular Brasileira, in October of 1966, Chico's song
"A Banda" (The Band), shared first place with "Disparada" (At Full
Tilt), by Théo de Barros and Geraldo Vandré. The song was an immediate success that sold
over 5,000 records in a week. The poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade acclaimed the song in a
chronicle, and the song was soon translated into several languages. An unusual honor was
bestowed on the song in that since 1978, it has been part of the repertoire of the Irish
Guards Band, one of the musical bands that play at the changing of the guard at Buckingham
Palace.
New Image
It was about this time that he moved to the city of his birth, Rio de Janeiro, and
issued his first LP on RGE, Chico Buarque de Hollanda. Thus occurred also his first
run-in with the military dictatorship's censors. The song "Tamandaré," which
was on the repertoire of the show Meu Refrão (My Refrain), with the group MPB4 and
Odette Lara, was prohibited after six months for a few phrases considered offensive to the
navy admiral whose face appeared on the old cruzeiro note.
He received a great honor during this time, namely that of being the youngest artist to
record an entry for the Museum of Image and Sound—something hitherto reserved for
older generations. It was his first foray into writing music for children when he composed
the music for the play The Ugly Duckling. Almost simultaneously, he launched his
first songbook A Banda with manuscripts of lyrics and the story Ulisses. He
then met the actress Marieta Severo, whom he would later marry and with whom he would have
three daughters.
At a time when political uncertainty was the only sure thing in Brazil, Chico Buarque
became a national symbol of unity, "the man every woman wanted to marry and every man
wanted to emulate." Renowned writer and cartoonist Millôr Fernandes called him
"the only national unanimity." He represented a return to better times before
the military regime.
Although living in Rio, Chico continued to appear on and record programs in São Paulo,
such as the music program on TV Record Pra Ver a Banda Passar (To See the Band Pass
By), with Nara Leão. Plagued by shyness, Chico did not much like television and only felt
comfortable about appearing on Esta Noite Se Improvisa (Tonight We Improvise) also
on TV Record where he alternated with Caetano Veloso for the first place in knowledge of
lyrics of Brazilian songs. He had his debut as a film actor in Leon Hirszman's Garota
de Ipanema (Girl from Ipanema), alongside Tom Jobim, Nara Leão, and Ronnie Von, in
which he played himself.
One of Chico Buarque's most beautiful songs, "Carolina," took 3rd
place in FIC (Festival Internacional da Canção—International Song Festival)
promoted by Rede Globo television network, and his "Roda Viva" as well came in 3rd
in III Festival da MPB on TV Record. It was a time of transition in MPB. A group of
musicians, among them Gilberto Gil, Elis Regina, Jair Rodrigues, and the members of MPB4
organized a protest march against electric guitars in MPB, and although agreeing with
them, Chico did not participate. He was in the process of writing the play Roda Viva, but
did have time in between to record Chico Buarque de Hollanda vol. 2.
When a student was shot and killed in Rio in 1968, it resulted in a protest march in
which Chico participated. Along with his growing popularity among Brazilians, his problems
with the government grew. Seeing him as a rebel causing "dangerous" thoughts,
the military censors prohibited many of his works—contributing, of course, to their
popularity. That was not the case, however, with his play Roda Viva, a satire
portraying a popular singer as being devoured by his fans. The military and the people
were offended, and on the 18th of July, 1968, members of the CCC (Comando de
Caça aos Comunistas—Comando for the Hunt of Communists) invaded a theater in São
Paulo and beat up on actors and stage workers.
Meanwhile, Chico continued his victorious ways with "Sabiá", made in
partnership with Tom Jobim, who also composed "Pois É" (That's Right) and
"Retrato em Branco e Preto" (Portrait in White and Black). The press was full of
stories of disagreements between Chico Buarque and the Tropicalistas who criticized Chico.
Caetano Veloso is quoted as having said, "Chico Buarque continues making that which
is pretty, while we'd also like to see things that are ugly."
Days after the Institutional Act No 5 on December 13th, which strengthened
the military government's grip on the population, he was detained at his house and taken
to the military barracks and questioned about his participation in the 100,000 person
march as well as the scenes in Roda Viva considered subversive.
Likely because of his family background, he was treated less harshly than other
dissidents of the military. Thus, with authorization from a Colonel Átila, whom he had to
ask permission to leave town, Chico left Brazil in January and attended a large trade show
for the phonographic industry held in Europe. After its conclusion, he went into a
self-imposed exile in Italy. His song "A Banda" had been recorded by Italian
singer Mina and had landed on the charts, but even so, his next two LPs met with little
success in Italy. After some hard financial times, things started looking up with a
contract from Phillips for a new LP. His payment for that was about $21,000, enough to
sustain the young family which on March 28th was enlarged with Sílvia Severo
Buarque de Hollanda, the first of his three daughters, who had as godfather none other
than Vinícius de Moraes.
Chico was doing well in Europe, touring and being the opening act for Josephine Baker.
He contacted Toquinho and invited him to join him in shows in Italy. Chico Buarque, being
a life long lover of soccer, had the great pleasure of spending time with Mané Garrincha,
by many considered the greatest soccer player ever. Not only did he enjoy the times they
spent together talking about music and soccer, it also earned him great respect in his
neighborhood bar in Rome.
From time to time he contributed to the political satirical O Pasquim in Brazil
with articles. O Pasquim was, at the time, one of the landmark periodicals of
Brazilian journalism. In 1970, Chico Buarque had had enough of exile and returned to
Brazil amidst a grand scale welcome at the airport with the attendance of a large crowd of
people, press, and cameras—a spectacle arranged on the initiation of Vinícius de
Moraes, to show the military how much he was missed in Brazil and demonstrate that they
were not to "mess with him." Scheduled was also a show at the club Sucata to
launch his 4th LP—a work of transition, recorded under adverse
circumstances. On it he stays away from traditional samba and reveals new influences.
It was not long, however, before Chico was in trouble again with the censors. The
single Apesar de Você, (In Spite of You), surprisingly passed the sharp eye of the
censors and sold over 100,000 copies. That is when it must have dawned on somebody that
the lyrics were highly political. The mighty seemed to have missed what everybody else in
Brazil knew without a doubt, namely that the você, you, in the song referred to
general Emílio Garrastazu Médici, then president of the republic, in whose government
were committed the worst atrocities against the opposition to the regime.
Upon being interrogated, Chico was asked who você was. His response was,
"It's a very authoritarian woman." After this episode, his songs were always
besieged by censors. He participated in the Counsel of Cebrade (Centro Brasil
Democrático—Democratic Brazil Center), an organization of intellectuals, publicly
against the military, alongside such notables as the architect Oscar Niemeyer, the editor
Ênio Silveira, and his own father. His association with the Cebrade earned him, for a
while, the label of member of the auxiliary line of one of the two communist parties, the
pro Moscow PCB (Partido Comunista Brasileiro—Brazilian Communist Party). Along with
the struggle and problems was also good news in the Buarque family. On December 22nd,
little Helena was born to the proud parents.
Other
Interests
In 1971, his samba "Bolsa de Amores" (Purse of Love) composed as a play on
words on the Bolsa de Valores (the Stock Exchange) for Mário Reis, a trader there. It was
immediately banned as "offensive to the women of Brazil." The new LP came out
with one cut less than the usual 12. He had a run-in with TV Globo and cancelled his
enrollment in the VI International Festival of Songs in protest against the policy that
more famous singers did not have to pass through the eliminating phases.
In 1972, he performed with Caetano Veloso at TCA, Teatro Castro Alves in
Salvador—a performance that resulted in the LP Juntos (Together). There always
existed a kind of rivalry between the two. Why is anyone's guess. Perhaps it is that they
are both intellectuals who appear to attack their art from diametrically opposed angles.
Perhaps, merely "one of those things." At any rate, when launching his new CD, Livro
(Book), which contains the song "Pra Ninguém" (For Nobody)—a
kind of answer to Chico's "Paratodos" (For Everybody), Caetano said, "It
seems as if my career has been in pursuit of Chico's."
The seventies was a decade of artistic expression going in many different directions
for the multi talented Buarque. He launched a double album Ópera do Malandro
(Opera of the Crook), he wrote music for film and theater, such as República dos
Assasinos (Republic of the Assassins) by Miguel Faria, Jr.; Sob Medida (To
Measure); Não Sonho Mais, (I Don't Dream Anymore); Bye Bye, Brasil by Cacá
Diegues for which he wrote the song of the same name, and "Dueto" (Duet) for the
play O Rei de Ramos by Dias Gomes. If that weren't enough, his literary career took
off with his first children's book Chapeuzinho Amarelo (Little Yellow Hat),
illustrated by Donatella Berlendis.
After 12 years with PolyGram, Chico left them and signed a recording contract with
Ariola. Ironically, PolyGram bought out Ariola the following year. Along with many other
artists, he participated in Festa do Avante, the official organ of Partido Comunista
Português and Projeto Kulunga in Angola. He was joined by 64 other Brazilian artists at a
charity performance for the construction of a hospital.
Argentine filmmaker, Maurício Berú made a documentary about Chico Buarque, Certas
Palavras (Certain Words), with participation of Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, and
Vinícius de Moraes, who appeared here for the last time. Toquinho, Francis Hime, Ruy
Guerra, Miúcha, Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, as well as other friends and acquaintances.
While this was going on, Chico was busy writing songs for the play O Último dos
Nukupirus by Ziraldo Gugu Olimecha and launching a new album Vida (Life), which
has, among others, the track Eu Te Amo (I Love You), composed especially for the
film of the same name by Arnaldo Jabor.
In 1981, he tried his hand at writing a screenplay with Sérgio Bardotti, Antônio
Pedro, and Teresa Trautman for the film Saltimbancos Trapalhões. At the same time,
he published a poem which had been put away in a drawer for the past 17 years. It was
"A Bordo do Rui Barbosa" (Aboard the Rui Barbosa), written between 63 and 64,
with illustrations by his friend Valandro Keating. At the same time, he also issued two
new albums, Almanaque and Saltimbancos Trapalhões.
In 1982, in partnership with Edu Lobo, he composed the songs for the ballet O Grande
Circo Místico (The Great Mystic Circus), which would be issued on LP the following
year. Sadly, during this year, Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, his father, died at the age of
79.
During 1983/84, Chico worked with filmmaker Miguel Faria, Jr. On the adaptation and
screenplay for the film Para Viver um Grande Amor (To Live a Great Love). In 1983,
he wrote his classic song Vai Passar (It will Pass), a powerful song, which became
a reference for the movement Diretas Já (Popular Vote Now), although Chico denied having
written it for that purpose.
The prolific artists composed "Mil Perdões," (A Thousand Pardons) for the
film Perdoa-me por Me Traíres (Pardon Me for Betraying Me) by Braz Chediak. For
the play Dr. Getúlio by Dias Gomes and Ferreira Gullar, he composed the song of
the same name. Having been away from the stage for nine years, he appeared again at Luna
Park in Buenos Aires. During a taping at TV Bandeirantes, he had a surprise encounter with
his idol, Pagão, former soccer player with Santos—arranged by director Roberto de
Oliveira.
Not satisfied with all his accomplishments, Chico Buarque published, in 1991, his first
novel Estorvo (Trouble), which was quickly translated into a variety of languages
and published in Europe and the United States. In Portugal, it sold 7,500 copies in just 3
days, to the amazement of the publishing house Dom Quixote. In 1994, after a recording
pause of four years, Chico Buarque launched his new CD Paratodos (For Everybody).
After much anticipation, he toured with the show to rave reviews.
Always a man of social consciousness, he participated in the Campanha Nacional Contra a
Fome e Pela Cidadania (The National Campaign Against Hunger and for Citizenship) initiated
by sociologist Herbert de Souza, Betinho. His second novel Benjamim received less
favorable reviews in the literary press, in spite of being a success in the bookstores and
receiving praise from other writers. Another pause followed the success of Paratodos.
A collection of his best songs was issued under the title As Palavras (The Words).
In 1998, Chico Buarque was the subject of the Carnaval theme of the samba school
Mangueira, which went on to win the competition. It was a great triumph for Chico Buarque
who participated in the parade in Rio. And it was in 1998 that his new CD As Cidades (The
Cities) hit the stores. A quiet, contemplative CD, it gets better for every time one hears
it.
His Works
Literature
The first songbook, A Banda, Chico Buarque published in 1968 contained lyrics
and musical charts, the story "Ulisses," which he would later call "a
little weak," and a chronicle by Carlos Drummond de Andrade about "A
Banda," which had already been published in the literary section of daily O Estado
de S. Paulo.
Chapeuzinho Amarelo (Little Yellow Hat). This book/poem from 1979 is the first
publication dedicated to children. A little girl illustrates in a humorous manner, the
comings and goings of child like fears. The book was considered highly commendable by the
National Foundation of Child and Youth Books in 1979.
Fazenda Modelo—Novela Pecuária (Fazenda Modelo—Cattle-raising Story).
"Chico Buarque weaves an allegory of a society of men—speaking, however,
exclusively of bulls and cows. It is a parable of power, in respect to forms of social
dominance over the human herd. And the more radical domination is to usurp the
individual—always in the name of more sacred principles, any possibility of assuming
one's own personal destiny.
The Fazenda Modelo is a bovine community which begins to grow and which is
seen—through the calm leadership of the bull Juvenal, the good—subjected to a
radical process of transformation of "progress," in which everything natural is
considered backwards or sinful and becomes scientifically regulated.
"All forms of self regulation of the individual are eliminated—from food
intake to sexual expression; procreation is guaranteed through artificial insemination
from the sperm bank of the bull Abá, the Great Reproducer. Juvenal abolishes sexual
relations of the herd. And the son of Abá, Lubino, is supposed to succeed his father in
the glorious role at Fazenda Modelo. It is exactly at the moment of "initiation"
of Lubino by Juvenal that the chosen path will present itself." Adélia Bezerra de
Menezes, Literatura Comentada, 1980.
A Bordo do Rui Barbosa (Aboard the Rui Barbosa). "The poem is from 63 or
64. Years during which we dedicated ourselves to not study architecture. We made bossa
nova in the basements of the FAU, Vallandro on guitar and I with lyrics. 15 years
later, Vallandro appears before me with this poem all crumpled up. It took me a while to
recognize it. After he showed me his idea of the designs, I found it beautiful. It was
like he had put music to my lyrics." Chico Buarque, Rio, 1981
Estorvo (Trouble). "This novel by Chico Buarque, at the first reading,
affirms itself as an exemplary demonstration of a novel. Estorvo, is as far as I'm
concerned, a hallucinated pilgrimage in search of lost roots, through an existential
journey populated with amazement and solitude. Here, all the functions of the equilibrium
of social structures—family, friendship, power—lose their formal consistency
from the first clash and ruptures when the glance of the protagonist (and the writer)
extends over them." José Cardoso Pires, Folha de São Paulo, 1994.
Benjamim. "It is a story of blame, bitter, dense, almost suffocating.
Narrated in third person, it permits the narrator to know the facts and points of view of
the other characters. The word is the basic character of Chico's new novel, as in his last
CD, Uma Palavra, also issued this year. Benjamim, by definition is the favorite
son. Benjamim Zambraia, the protagonist, is not, nor will he be the favorite of anyone. He
is in front of the firing squad from the first sentence of the book. When he hears the
shots, his existence—the time is another character—projects itself, as he
already expected, "from the beginning to the end, just like a film."" Jornal
da Tarde, 1995
Theater
Roda Viva. The play, which was written as a satire, is about a popular singer
who feels used and "devoured" by his audience. At the performance, actors
offered pieces of his "liver" to the audience. At a performance of the play in
July, 1968 in São Paulo at the Teatro Galpão, some 100 members of the CCC (Comando de
Caça aos Comunistas—Comando for the Hunt of Communists), invaded the show and beat
up on actors and stage hands. The following day, Chico was in the audience to support the
group and began a movement organized in defense of Roda Viva and against censorship
on the Brazilian stages.
Calabar. Calabar was written at the end of 1973, in partnership with filmmaker
Ruy Guerra and directed by Fernando Peixoto. The play depicts the position of Domingos
Fernandes Calabar during the historic episode in which he chose to take sides with the
Dutch against the Portuguese crown. It was one of the most expensive theatrical
productions of the time, costing about $30,000 and employed more than 80 people. As
always, the censors of the military regime had to approve and release the work at a
rehearsal dedicated to that purpose. After the show was ready, there was a wait for the
final approval. That took 3 months, and in October 1974, General Antônio Bandeira of the
Federal Police, without apparent motive, prohibited the play, prohibited the name Calabar,
and if that weren't enough, even prohibited that the prohibition be divulged. The damage
to the authors, actor Fernando Torres, producers of the play, was enormous. Six years
later, a new production had its début, this time released by the censors.
Gota D'água (Last Straw). In 1975, Chico wrote with Paulo Pontes, the play Gota
D'água, inspired by a project of Oduvaldo Viana Filho, who had already done an
adaptation of Medea by Euripides, for television. The urban tragedy, in the form of a poem
with more that 4,000 verses, has as its backdrop the bitterness suffered by the
inhabitants of a joint community, the Vila do Meio-Dia, and, in the center the
relationship between Joana and Jasão, a popular composer under the influence of the
powerful manager Creonte. Jasão ends up leaving Joana and the two children to marry Alma,
daughter of the manager. The first showing had Bibi Ferreira in the role of Joana and was
under direction of Gianni Ratto.
Ópera do Malandro (Opera of the Crook). "The text is based on the Beggar's
Opera of 1728 by John Gay and The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt
Weill. The work originates in an analysis of those two plays by Luís Antônio Martinez
Corrêa and counted on the collaboration of Maurício Sette, Marieta Severo, Rita
Murtinho, and Carlos Gregório. The team also cooperated in the realization of the final
text through readings and suggestions. During this stage of the work, we benefited a great
deal from the films Threepenny Opera, by Pabst, and Getúlio Vargas by Ana
Carolina, the studies of Bernard Dort O Teatro e Sua Realidade (The Theater and its
Reality), the memoirs of Madame Satan, as well as the friendship and testimony of Grande
Otelo.
"We also relied on Professor Manuel Maurício de Albuquerque for a better
perception of the different historic moments through which the three operas passed.
Professor Luiz Werneck Vianna contributed, later, with very informative observations. And
Maurício Arraes got together with our group in the phase of transposition from text to
the stage.
We are grateful to Dr. João Carlos Muller for the commitment with which he fought with
the Federal censors for the release of the play, in the courts. In the same sentiment we
are grateful to Messrs. Luís Macedo and Humberto Barreto. Finally, a hug for the cast who
understood our creative process and became part of it. This play is dedicated to the
memory of Paulo Pontes." Chico Buarque, Rio de Janeiro, June 1978.
Julinho de
Adelaide
One cannot mention the works of Chico Buarque without talking about Julinho de
Adelaide. At the height of the military rule, when the censors mercilessly prohibited
everything Chico Buarque touched, a new star appeared to hit the market, Julinho de
Adelaide. Chico would record the songs of this new artist whose songs were so lyrical and
not dissimilar to his own. Songs like "Acorda Amor" (Wake up, Love), "Jorge
Maravilha" (Jorge Marvel), "Milagre Brasileiro" (Brazilian Miracle) passed
through the censors without major problems, until at one point it became known that
Julinho de Adelaide and Chico Buarque were one and the same. After that, a copy of a
person's identification papers was required when a text was submitted for the censors.
Kirsten Weinoldt was born in Denmark and came to the U.S. in 1969. She
fell in love with Brazil after seeing Black Orpheus many years ago and has lived
immersed in Brazilian culture ever since. E-mail: kwracing@erols.com
