António Teixeira

He was born in Lisbon on May 14, 1707, the son of Manuel Teixeira and Vicência da Silva. At around nine years of age, he became the first aspiring musician sent to Rome by order of King João V, with the aim of learning the art of counterpoint. In the following years, he would be followed by Joaquim do Vale Mexelim, João Rodrigues Esteves and Francisco António de Almeida¹. His stay in Italy earned him recognition as a composer and harpsichordist, and upon his return to Portugal on June 11, 1728, he was elected Capelão-Cantor (Chaplain-Singer) of the Patriarchal See and examiner of ordinands in plainchant for the Patriarchate of Lisbon².

In the 1730s, he composed several festive cantatas for members of the aristocracy, including Gli Sposi Fortunati, presented at the house of Antónia Joaquina de Menezes de Lavra during the Carnival of 1732, and a Componimento drammatico, conceived to celebrate the marriage of the Marquis of Cascais during the Carnival of 1738. Alongside these commissions, he devoted himself intensely to sacred music and, in 1734, wrote one of his most celebrated works: a Te Deum hymn for twenty voices, presented at the church of São Roque on December 31³.

Still in the 1730s, António Teixeira began an operatic collaboration with the playwright António José da Silva, “the Jew,” born in Brazil in 1705 and executed in an auto-da-fé of the Inquisition in 1739. This artistic encounter resulted in at least two operas: Guerras do Alecrim e Manjerona and As Variedades de Proteu, both presented at the Teatro do Bairro Alto in 1737. It is, however, likely that the composer was also responsible for the music of six other operas with texts by António José da Silva: Vida do Grande D. Quixote de la Mancha e do Gordo Sancho Pança (1733), Esopaida ou Vida de Esopo (1734), Os Encantos de Medeia (1735), Anfitrião ou Júpiter e Alcmena (1736), O Labirinto de Creta (1736) and Precipício de Faetonte (1738)⁴.

Although the date of his death remains unknown, the Lista de Alguns Músicos Portugueses by Cardinal Saraiva indicates that the composer was still alive in 1759⁵. Furthermore, it is assumed that this is the same António Teixeira who joined the Brotherhood of Santa Cecília on November 28, 1765, and who is the author of several sacred works preserved in the archive of Lisbon Cathedral, one of which is dated 1770⁶.

Filipa Cruz