The Widows

Abstract

Abstract This chapter traces the many paths taken by Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow in Rio de Janeiro. Staged in a variety of locales and performed in different contexts, the operetta’s popularity fueled a local multilingualism and became central to the local explorations of intermedial connections between music and sound through the mixing of live performances and new technologies and media. The chapter discusses connections and disconnections about music and language in the city stages and their limitations for exploring issues of national belonging. The Merry Widow eventually branched off from main theaters of the city center to be welcomed in the circus, where it was reworked by Black composers and performers, and by Spanish performers who dominated the circus circuit. In this chapter, issues of race are coupled with cosmopolitanism as a shared experience of a few, while suggesting that timbre and instrumental ensemble formations can illuminate a shared soundscape that evades borders. The chapter brings to the fore the performances of artists such as Benjamin de Oliveira, Gisela Morosini, Cremilda de Oliveira, Ismênia Matheus, and Lili Cardona, among others.