Post by Laurence Aikens

Antônio Carlos Gomes (July 11, 1836 – September 16, 1896) was the first New World composer whose work was accepted in Europe. The only non-European who was successful as an opera composer in Italy during the “golden age of opera”, contemporary to Verdi and Puccini, and the first composer of non-European lineage to be accepted into the tradition of music. He was the second son of Fabiana Maria J. Cardoso and Manuel José Gomes, a composer and bandleader born to an African American freedwoman and an unknown father. He achieved his first major success at a time when the Italian audiences were eager for a new name to celebrate, and Puccini had not yet officially started his career. After the successful premiere of Il Guarany, he was considered the most promising new composer. Verdi said his work was an expression of “true musical genius”. Liszt said that “it displays dense technical maturity, full of harmonic and orchestral maturity.” #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence