Scholars have long been reluctant to acknowledge the nationalist significance of the opera Il Guarany (1870), by the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Gomes. (1) Its triumphal success at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 17 March 1870, repeated in numerous performances in major European cities, can be attributed, to some extent, to the exoticist appeal which its subject matter held for European audiences of the time. However, the Brazilian public acclaim that followed its performance at the Rio de Janeiro Teatro Lirico Fluminense, on 2 December 1870, cannot simply be considered a patriotic response to the accolades it had earned in Europe. Although the fact that it was the first work to place Brazilian art music on the international scene was crucial for earning national esteem, Il Guarany also fulfilled other kinds of expectations in its early reception history in Brazil. This article explores this issue from the perspective of the narratives of national identity fostered by official culture during the Brazil ian Second Empire.

Indianismo has been considered merely a literary element in Brazilian opera, exerting no major consequences on musical expression and its social-cultural meaning. I argue elsewhere that the contribution of Indianismo in the nationalization process of Brazilian music needs to be refrained, not only because the choice of the literary subject was central to the operatic genre, but also and above all because Indianismo conveyed major ideological issues concerning the construction of national identity. (2) The fact that Indianismo had already run its course in Brazilian literature when Carlos Gomes wrote an opera on the subject leads to the assumption that Indianismo was a peripheral element in the nationalization of Brazilian music. However, Il Guarany was the first successful operatic rendition of a major narrative of national foundation constructed by Indianismo. Coeval, and more recent criticism, reflects the problematic relation between Jose de Alencar's historical novel and the libretto adaptation. (3)

This study proposes an inter-textual ideological analysis of how the operatic adaptation of the Indianist novel affected the ideological discourse related to the myth of national foundation and the issue of inter-ethnic contact and miscegenation. The simplification resulting from the adaptation of the literary work into the libretto is not discussed as a matter of adjusting literary into operatic conventions, but rather in its impact on the ideological level of its operatic realization. The comparative analysis between the literary source and the libretto considers: (1) what Indianist myths (including the frontier myth, the myth of national origins, the mythical couple, the Edenic myth, the myth of the good Indian, the myth of primitive savagery, the captive myth, the diluvian myth, the sacrificial myth, and the identification of the Indian with surrounding nature) are maintained, omitted, or deflated in the opera in comparison to the literary work upon which it was based, and how this new setting of mythical relations affects the ideology of the opera; (4) (2) which characters and episodes are omitted in the libretto, and what are the consequences of both the protagonists'...