Portugal (Portogallo; real name, Ascenção or Assumpção), Marcos Antônio (da Fon Seca)

Portugal (Portogallo; real name, Ascenção or Assumpção), Marcos Antonio (da Fon Seca) , prominent Portuguese composer; b. Lisbon, March 24, 1762; d. Rio de Janeiro, Feb. 7, 1830. A pupil at the ecclesiastical seminary at Lisbon, he continued his musical education with composition lessons from João de Souza Carvalho. Between 1784 and 1791 he wrote for Lisbon 17 stage works, mostly ephemeral. His reputation was made in Italy, where, with the exception of a short visit to Lisbon, he lived from 1792 to 1800, bringing out some 21 operas for various Italian theaters. Upon his return to Lisbon (1800), he was made mestre de capela of the royal chapel and director of the Teatro San Carlos. His Il Filosofo seducente, ossia Non irritar le donne (Venice, Dec. 27, 1798) was selected by Napoleon for opening the Théâtre-Italien at Paris in 1801. In 1807 the royal family fled to Brazil before the French invasion; Portugal remained until the Teatro San Carlos was closed in 1810, and then followed the court to Rio de Janeiro, where he served as mestre de capela of the royal chapel and master of music to the future John VI. The royal theater of São João, after its inauguration in 1813, produced several new operas by him. In that year he became director of the new Cons. at Vera Cruz, jointly with his brother Simão; he visited Italy in 1815, returned to Rio de Janeiro, and passed his last years there as an invalid. His masterpiece is Fernando nel Messico (Venice, Jan. 16, 1798; written for the famous English singer Elizabeth Billington; produced in London, in Italian, March 31, 1803); other Italian operas that had a favorable reception were Demofoonte (Milan, Feb. 8, 1794) and Le Donne cambiate (Venice, Oct. 22, 1797); of Portuguese operas, A Castanheira (The Chestnut Seller), produced in Lisbon in 1787, enjoyed considerable popular success. He further wrote about 100 sacred works.

Bibliography

M. Carvalhães, M. P. na sua musica dramatica (Lisbon, 1910).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire