The Chamber Opera Company of the Real Teatro de Queluz was founded in 1991 and directed by the soprano Elsa Saque and the maestros Armando Vidal and Manuel Ivo Cruz (who presided over the enterprise), with the purpose of, on the one hand, making up for the lack of groups of this kind in Portugal, and on the other, supporting the career development of Portuguese opera singers, given the lack of sufficient official support.¹During the approximately 10 years in which it was in activity, it performed more than 180 staged shows and opera galas in cities across the country. Among the performers, in addition to the founders, Carlos Guilherme, Fernando Serafim and António Wagner Diniz stood out. As for the repertoire, works such as La serva padrona, by Pergolesi, Bastien und Bastienne, by Mozart, The Cooper, by Thomas Arne, as well as La Bohème, by Puccini, and The Merry Widow, by Léhar, stood out.²
