From Puppets to Opera

Abstract

Although theatrical performances were being produced in Portuguese America since the 16th century, it was only in 1719 that the first permanent public theatre was established, offering puppet performances for locals and foreigners who visited the city of Rio de Janeiro. This paper analyses the foundation of the first permanent theatre of Brazil through primary sources and travellers’ journals. The contextualisation of the puppet theatrical activity in the early 18th-century Lisbon is also crucial to our understanding of the importance of this form of art, which figures as one of the most fascinating pages of Portuguese and Brazilian theatre history.