O Conselho das Dez

The work O Conselho das Dez was born from the collaboration between the composer António Luís Miró and the dramaturge Paulo Midosi (1821–1888) and was presented to the public at the Teatro do Ginásio in December 1848, two months after the duo had made their debut at the same theatre with A Marquesa. Having just left the Teatro de São Carlos, where he had served as maestro, Miró sought to join the group of artists who had gathered at that other theatre with the intention of exploring Portuguese comic opera. According to Paula Magalhães, the more conservative critics trembled at “the theatre’s audacity in wanting to sing arias and duets a few metres from the cathedral” of lyric repertoire. However, the investment in the genres of comic opera and lyrical farce allowed the Teatro do Ginásio to rise to the “category of ‘temple’ of entertainment and laughter.” Thus, despite the initial scepticism, the press responded positively to the experiments of Miró and Midosi⁴.

An opinion published in the newspaper O Espectador compares the two operas by this duo, writing that, although it was “perhaps more beautiful and more masterfully written than its predecessor,” Conselho das Dez “does not, however, have the same popularity, the same cantabile, the same grace of motifs, the same fluency of melody that made A Marqueza so agreeable.” The same critic added, however, that in both works “Mr. Miró proved that he was highly capable and very suited to this genre of composition. His orchestration above all is admirable. Orchestral effects are achieved with half a dozen instruments, whose movement in the ensembles nonetheless gives the impression of a full orchestra.”⁵