Librettist: Gervásio Lobato, Jaime Batalha Reis, Eça Leal (Ricardo Neves Neves, 2023 version)
Operetta
Date: 1879
Language: Portuguese
Maria da Fonte: Mezzo‑soprano
Abade Cortições: Baritone
Ludovino: Tenor
Joana: Soprano
Perpétua: Soprano
Onofre: Baritone
Vilar: Baritone
Aniceto: Baritone
Common people: chorus
Women: chorus
The whereabouts of the original libretto are unknown. However, as part of the opera’s recovery project coordinated by the Laboratório de Ópera Portuguesa, the director Ricardo Neves Neves was invited to create a libretto based on the parts contained in the musical version. The modern libretto “presents the popular heroine as an intense, courageous woman who, although not revealing the strength and convictions of a Joan of Arc, does not abandon a certain social conscience. The original intrigues have not been lost in the recovery of Machado’s operetta. We speak of the plot involving the character Maria da Fonte herself, her lover Ludovino (a wealthy farmer) and her sister Joana, based on strong suspicions of betrayal; and of a conspiracy between the local administrator, Vilar, and the abbot Cortições, who is implied to be the father of Maria da Fonte and Joana, to send the boys to the army to fight the rabble.”¹
Fl (Picc) | Ob | 2 Cl | 2 Tpt | 2 Hn | Tbn | 3 Perc | Vln | Vla | Vc | Cb
Maria da Fonte premiered on May 5, 1879, at the Teatro da Trindade and constituted an essential piece in composer Augusto Machado’s project to establish an operetta of national character. The libretto, authored by Jaime Batalha Reis, is based on the story of the woman who led a revolt in Minho against the laws of Cabralism and who became a heroine and a symbol of national identity. Although the original text of the operetta has not survived, the work was revived in 2023 in a production by the Laboratório da Ópera Portuguesa, which commissioned a modern libretto from director and playwright Ricardo Neves‑Neves, “inspired by the music contained in the manuscripts and in keeping with the dramatic plot that results from them.”²
Date: 1879
Venue: Teatro da Trindade, Lisbon
