Bel canto na escrita de um compositor de transição: considerações sobre a vocalidade de Fosca e Maria Tudor

Carlos Gomes is a necessary subject of contemplation in a musicological research project that proposes to study the transitional period of Italian opera. Along with an evolved writing there is conservative technique, strongly linked to the conventions of the first half of the nineteenth century, that comprises the creative universe of the Brazilian opera composer in the organization of the dramatic discourse of the spectacle or in the rapid characterization of his characters. This study proposes to discuss the term bel canto from a bibliographical review of authors and treatises that paved the modern view we have on the subject and then to identify and analyze the presence of bel canto gestures in gomesian vocality. With the purpose of demonstrating that Gomes constantly relies on procedures belonging to the old school ( primo ottocento ), we selected the operas Fosca and Maria Tudor to apply the results – works considered as having advanced vocality within the opera composer’s production.