Data sheet

When entering the theater, it is part of the ritual to receive the program or complete brochure about the performance that is about to get on the stage. It works as a guide, where the piece's context, the artists' biographies, the description of the characters and plot are explained to the general public as a warm up for the reality that, in some minutes, will be immersed in. As being to get in the French working class bohemia or travel into space in a history about passion and jealousy, it is through the programs and its data sheets that artists' names loose their original personalities and embody new ways of being. This little list of names inside the programs immortalizes a noted performance and gives us access to what happened more than a century ago. The program's content and the design of each edition narrate the historical evolution of the cultural context and of the different administrations that passed through the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo. In this exhibition, you will understand how the theater's premiere in 1911 was, see famous names that performed here, go through historical landmarks of the city such as the Semana de Arte Modena, and witness the culture's democratization articulated by Mario de Andrade.

In 1903, the construction of one of the biggest concert halls of Latin America starts. Inspired in the architectural style of Paris Opera, the Theatro Municipal of São Paulo opened its doors for the first time in 1911. For the opening, the Companhia Italiana Titta Ruffo has been chosen to perform.

In 1922, on February 13th, 15th and 17th, the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo was the stage of one of the most important artistic events in the country, the Semana de Arte Moderna. In the lobby, rented for 847,000 réis (around R$ 20,000 nowadays), concerts, dancers, conferences, and an art exhibition shaped the event that caused an uproar in our history. Using the Municipal as one of the places of the Semana generated protests from a still conservative and not less provincial civil society. The controversy increased when, in the second day of the event, the brilliant pianist Guiomar Novaes, congratulated in that time by the very influent journalist and writer Paulo Menotti Del Picchia, played works by Debussy, innovative French composer, and generated protests of all kinds. The Semana, defended by some historians as a reaction that changed the arts future, was seen in that time as a scandal and pure entertainment of some young lads founded by patrons of São Paulo's bourgeoisie. The History, however, proved them wrong.

Catalog of Semana de Arte Moderna's exhibition.

The 1930's Revolution was the big responsible by the interruption of the lyrical seasons of the Theatro during the first years of the decade. The revolutionaries believed that the opera represented a tradition that it was no longer representative of the new art production, which it was departing to focus in the elite -- that was diluted by the financial crisis -- to center its attention in an emergent social class and an audience notarially heterogeneous. The seasons could only be retaken three years later, after a popular season organized by the Brazilian tenor Reis e Silva, which counted with names like the soprano Carmem Gomes and the basses José and Salvador Perrotta. During the celebration in homage of Carlos Gomes, in 1936, Gina Cigna, exceptional Italian-French dramatic-soprano, participated in the rerun of "Lo Schiavo." Bidú Sayão appeared in "Il Guarany," on the side of Georges Thill, who was considered one of the best French tenors of his time. In May 1938, the S.A. Teatro Brasileiro, founded by Grabriela Besanzoni, makes its first performance in Municipal, although having a short life but being of great importance to opera's life in Brazil.

In 1935, Plínio Salgado released his political manifesto at the stage of Theatro Municipal creating the Brazilian Integralist Party (Partido Integralista Brasileiro). Several people reacted against it in a big confront between supporters of Plínio and opposition parties. Turmoils, fights, cops, prisons, gun shots, and murders happened in the city because of the event.