Francisco Alves Rente was born on September 7, 1851, in Porto and was a prolific operetta composer, particularly prominent in the musical life of his native city. He received his first music lessons from his teacher José Cândido and, at only 14 years old, won the position of first violin at the Teatro de São João.¹
Later, he became director of the Teatro da Trindade and presented his first dramatic work there – the burlesque opera Schah em Pancas – on June 21, 1874. The success of this work was repeated the following year with the premiere of the operetta O Diabrete, but the destruction of the Trindade building led him to settle at the Teatro das Variedades, where he presented his greatest success, the comic opera Verde Gaio, on October 15, 1876.²
After, in 1878, taking over the direction of a comic opera company in Lisbon, he became impresario of the Teatro do Príncipe Real in Porto and gave numerous performances between that city and the capital, among which A lenda do amor molhado, a comic opera presented at the Teatro da Avenida in 1888, stood out:
The success of this operetta, splendidly sung and performed by the company from Porto working at the Avenida, has increased night after night. Alves Rente’s music is simply enchanting! The two or three beautiful waltzes that Alves Rente wrote for ‘Amor Molhado’ would be enough to make a composer’s reputation. Among all his scores, this seemed to us the best, the most original, the one that incontrovertibly affirms the spontaneity – the fantasy – the taste of the prolific maestro.³
Francisco Alves Rente died three years after this success, on March 10, 1891, at only 39 years of age.⁴
