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Running head: CARNAVAL

Carnaval: The Brazilian Popular Opera

Márcio Padilha

College of Southern Idaho

James / ANTH 102

Spring 2007
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Carnaval: The Brazilian Popular Opera

“All societies alternate their lives between routines and rites, work and feast, body and

soul, things of men and matters of gods, ordinary periods – where life elapses with no problems

– and feasts, rites, celebrations, miracles and extraordinary occasions, where everything can be

perceived through a new prism, position, perspective, angle...” (DaMatta, 1984, p. 67).

Under this light, as the mundane Greco-Roman pagan festivals which celebrated the

return of spring and rebirth of nature intersected with the sacred in the form of the meat-eating

prohibition during Lent, carnaval, whose etymology is believed to stem out of the Latin term

carnelevarium, meaning “to take away [or to remove] meat”, emerged as means to provide for a

last opportunity for indulgence and partying before the abstinence and privations of the forty-day

period of fasting and penitence before Easter (Carnival, 2007).

During the Renaissance, carnaval, being precursory to the celebrations brought to the

Americas, where it was once again transformed by African and Native American traditions of

music and dance, was prevalently celebrated with elaborate formal costume-and-mask balls in

France, Italy and Spain (Carnaval do Brasil, 2007).

Inasmuch as carnaval, consisting of socio-culturally-sensitive merry-making and revelry,

was celebrated all over Brazil by the end of the 18th century, it was then deemed to be a

grotesque popular festivity which, in light of the era’s religious morals, was subdued to a series

of unsuccessful prohibitions and police control which targeted its extinction (Carnaval do Brasil,

2007). By the end of the 19th century, nonetheless, the festivity no longer held the same stigma

and the refined Parisian-style costume and mask balls started being put aside in favor of a more

impromptu celebration. Hence, by 1919, a number of people, indiscriminately referred to as

“blocks,” self organized and took over the streets of Rio de Janeiro, setting the model for the
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revelry which would eventually develop as the national cultural institution of the street carnival

where “almost anything made a costume with crowds surging through the city in groups large

and small who danced and jigged with the distinctive Brazilian movement of hips, shoulders and

feet to the insistent hypnotic thump of drums, tambourines and grunting cuicas dressed as wild

feathered Indians, men burlesquing in women’s dresses, women in men’s outfits, clowns, sailors

and countless other characters” (Moore, 1939, p. 323).

Besides the street celebrations, the carnaval in Rio evolved into an organized competition

between “samba schools,” clubs which compete with one another in dancing and singing

(Tavares de Sá, 1955, p. 301).

Samba schools are comprised of the front line, which consists of around ten people who

have to introduce the samba school's theme; of the master of ceremonies and flag bearer, a

couple, who dance in a graceful, composed manner; of the Baianas, which may include over one

hundred older Afro-Brazilian women stereotypically dressed to represent the women from Bahia

who sold goods in the streets of Rio during the 19th century; the drum section which consists of

a few hundred men playing in rows and, finally, the opulent floats (Escolas de Samba, 2007).

For the parade, each school presentation must have a central theme, such as a historical

event, famous figure or a Brazilian Indian legend, a samba-enredo song which must recount the

theme and the huge floats that accompany each school must detail the theme through costumes,

paintings or papier-mâché sculpture.

By being a combination of popular fervor and official backing, Rio’s Carnival is both

spontaneous and lavish. Besides ornamenting and lighting the main avenues and squares, the city

government also encourages and subsidizes basic pillars of the celebration (Tavares de Sá, 1955,

p. 301).
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The Samba Schools prepare year around for the event by holding rehearsals. The samba

itself which, despite drawing on folk dances and songs from all over Brazil and possessing a

rhythm with heavy ancestral African influence, is nevertheless an urban product sprung from this

versatile city” (Tavares de Sá, 1955, p. 301).

Samba is an umbrella term which encompasses many variants of a main theme. With

roots in Angola, samba developed as a distinctive kind of music at the beginning of the 20th

century in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, under the strong influence of immigrant

black people from the Brazilian State of Bahia. Despite some similarities, samba is not an

offshoot of jazz and has distinctively different origins and line of development. Samba is

characterized by a rhythm section containing the main beat, usually a surdo (bass drum) or

tantan. Another important element is the cavaquinho (a small, four-stringed instrument of the

guitar family similar to the ukelele), or cavaco. The cavaquinho is the connection between the

harmony section and the rhythm section. The pandeiro (tamborine drum) is the most present

percussive instrument, the one whose beat is the most "complete." A violão (acoustic guitar) is

usually present, and its presence in samba popularized the 7-string variation, because of the

highly sophisticated counterpoint lines used in the genre in the lower pitched strings with lyrics

that range from love songs, through soccer, to politics and many other subjects (Samba, 2007).

A samba-enredo is the samba school’s yearly theme song generally performed by male

vocalists accompanied by cavaquinho and a large percussion group producing a dense and

complex texture known as batucada (Samba, 2007).

Traditionally, the Samba school is a place where people who always wanted to write a

song or play a percussion instrument or choreograph a routine have their opportunity as the

samba parade is the work of communities working together.

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It is through the yearly carnaval parade that Brazilians, reflecting upon themselves and

the socio-political and cultural reality that surrounds them, project their interpretation of a

multitude of themes as the Brazilian Popular Opera, said to be one of the world’s greatest shows.
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References

Carnaval no Brasil. (2007) Retrieved March 11, 2007 from

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnaval_no_Brasil

Carnival. (2007) Retrieved March 11, 2007 from

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761595953/Carnival.html.

DaMatta, R. (1984). O que faz o brasil Brasil? Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Editora Rocco Ltda.

McDowell, B. (1978) Brazil’s Golden Beachhead. National geographic magazine, vol. 153 (2),

245-277

Moore, W. R. (1939). Rio panorama. National geographic magazine, vol. LXXVI (3), 283-324.

Tavares de Sá, H. (1955) Spectacular Rio de Janeiro. National geographic magazine, vol. CVII

(3), 289-328.

Carnaval: The Mother of all parties. (2007) Retrieved March 11, 2007 from

http://www.brazilbrazil.com/carnaval.html

Samba. (2007) Retrieved March 11, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(music)