Transatlantic musical connections: musical theatre touring companies in São Paulo (1914-1934)

• Grant number: 23/04678-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Virgínia de Almeida Bessa
• Grantee: Virgínia de Almeida Bessa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Carolina Gonzalez Velasco ; Matteo Paoletti ; Paulo Mugayar Kühl
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/20989-1 - Transatlantic musical unionism: the role of the Italian Union of Operetta Artists in the South American theatrical market (1919-1929), BP.MS; 24/10628-1 - São Paulo on the route of touring Spanish and Spanish-american musical theater companies: feeding the database "Teatro Musicado em São Paulo de 1914 a 1934", BP.IC; 24/10440-2 - São Paulo on the route of popular opera companies: feeding the database "Teatro Musicado em São Paulo de 1914 a 1934", BP.IC; + associated scholarships 24/10759-9 - São Paulo on the route of touring Portuguese musical theater companies: feeding the database "Teatro Musicado em São Paulo de 1914 a 1934", BP.IC; 24/10767-1 - São Paulo on the route of touring Italian and Italo-Brazilian operetta companies: feeding the database "Teatro Musicado em São Paulo de 1914 a 1934", BP.IC; 24/00793-5 - Transatlantic musical connections: international musical theatre touring companies in São Paulo (1914-1934), BP.JP - associated scholarships

Abstract

This project is linked to the proposal to create the research line "Global History of Musical Theatre", whose objective is to promote research that relates the musical, the historical-cultural and the transnational dimensions of those theatrical genres in which music is part of the dramatic action. Although musical theatre has already been consolidated as a research line in the Institute of Arts at Unicamp, the studies related to it mostly focus on dramaturgy or in its local or national aspects, with little or no attention given to the musical elements and to the cosmopolitan dimension of this type of spectacle. By studying the circulation of foreign musical theater companies in São Paulo between 1914 and 1934, gathering information about their casts, repertoire and trajectories, this research intends to examine the insertion of São Paulo in a nascent global market of cultural goods at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the effects of this insertion on São Paulo music-theatrical life. Its main starting point is the database Teatro Musicado em São Paulo, resulting from a previous research (Fapesp Grant Number 16/051184-0) which gathers information about São Paulo theatrical scene between 1914 and 1934 and continues to be fed, constituting a corpus with great long-term exploratory potential. The research will use digital tools that allow not only the dissemination of large volumes of data, but also their cross-referencing, filtering, and quantification, hence it falls within the fieldof Digital Humanities. Its approach also presupposes the intersection between Musicology, Theater Studies, and Global History. Finally, the project aims to establish an international network of researchers on Global History of Musical Theater, through annual research seminars, scientific meetings, and collective publications. (AU)