Um barítono nos trópicos

From 1850 on, with the inauguration of steam navigation routes headed for the main Latin American ports, the transatlantic journey turned into a consumer product. On huge ships all working classes, with their different occupations, have embarked – and in Latin America Italian immigrants were especially acknowledged for their talent for singing. In the Imperial Court of Rio de Janeiro, the competitiveness in the lyric theatre market was such that fed rivalry among those who were for and those against this or that singer, as well as sustained an intense exploitation of the artists by agents of ambiguous moral standards. This paper approaches this context through the eyes of Giuseppe Banfi, a carpenter that landed in Rio de Janeiro in 1857 – under full lyrical fever – and was immediately hired as a chorus member at the Teatro Lírico Fluminense and as a singer in some churches. After having his belongings stolen, he started on a fabulous journey through the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, reaching Paraná after a three-month trip. Back to Italy, he recounts his adventures in a diary that, combining characteristics of both travel account and Bildungsroman genres, can be read as a manifesto on tolerance in which the encounter of gentle natives and barbarian Europeans, both lost in the extreme regions of the continent, is staged. Music, as a language that does not set aside differences but rather enhances otherness, is an essential tactic in this intercultural dialogue.