Garrett spectateur et critique d'opéra: quelques considérations sur une facette presque inconnue

In the very extensive bibliography on Almeida Garrett a generally forgotten aspect is his role as spectator and opera critic. In Lisbon, as in many other cities where he passed (including London, Paris, and Brussels), the opera house was the center of artistic and social life, and so the father of Portuguese Romanticism, like most intellectuals and artists of his time, was an assiduous and passionate visitor to these spaces. Not only did he display his elegance there, but he enjoyed what the stage offered him, he exalted in verse the singers and dancers who appeared on it, and reflected on everything that was happening in the theatre. He was indeed the creator of theatrical criticism in Portugal. Starting from the texts collected by Xavier da Cunha in 1909, this article aims to draw an ample view not only of the testimonies of Garrett’s physical presence in the opera house and the literary reflexes of these experiences, as well as of the impacts that the universe of sound and dramaturgy of the lyrical theatre may have had in his work. The power of the voice and the sound perception are issues that are also considered.