Brazil was under a brutal military dictatorship for more than 20 years, which imposed severe limits to freedom of expression. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1944, songwriter Chico Buarque was a master at evading the strict censorship officially installed by the regime in 1968. During the 1970s, Buarque created some of Brazil’s most powerful songs that covertly—and sometimes directly—denounced the injustices of the country’s repressive economic and political systems. Chico Cabaret revisits Buarque’s Ópera do malandro (inspired by Weill’s The Threepenny Opera and Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera), sung by Mônica Salmaso and Júlia Vargas, plus songs arranged and performed by Clarice Assad, Paquito D’Rivera, Bianca Gismonti, Magos Herrera, Adrián Iaies, João Luiz, and Rita Payés.
Performers
Mariana Ciolfi, Director