Whelden, Schuyler Dunlap
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Political Voice: Opinião and the Musical Counterpublic in Authoritarian Brazil Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/22t2k3p3 Author Whelden, Schuyler Dunlap Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Political Voice: Opinião and the Musical Counterpublic in Authoritarian Brazil A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology by Schuyler Dunlap Whelden 2019 © Copyright by Schuyler Dunlap Whelden 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Political Voice: Opinião and the Musical Counterpublic in Authoritarian Brazil by Schuyler Dunlap Whelden Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Tamara Judith-Marie Levitz, Co-Chair Professor Timothy D. Taylor, Co-Chair This dissertation investigates how music making shapes political participation during periods of democratic crisis and authoritarianism. It examines the musical theater production Opinião, which was staged nightly in Rio de Janeiro from December 1964 to April 1965 at the onset of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Rather than examining Opinião as the reflection of its director’s or authors’ politics, I take an intersectional approach that focuses on the performers and audience members, who came from different gender, racial, geographic, and class backgrounds. Through an analysis of the show’s performances, I demonstrate how people from diverse populations enacted political protest. I put their diverse strategies for intervening in the Rio de Janeiro public sphere into dialogue with one another to demonstrate how authoritarian regimes impact different ii sectors of society. My inquiry combines both ethnographic and archival research methods. I draw on hundreds of archival documents and recordings—including newspaper and magazine clippings, theater programs, advertisements, and other ephemera—to reconstruct details of the show and investigate in depth the discourse that the show engendered. I argue that notions of authenticity were instrumentalized by critics and audiences to evaluate not only the performances in the show, but also the participants’ politics. In addition to archival materials, I draw on interviews I conducted with participants and audience members of Opinião, thereby including the impressions of people whose ideas were not included in the written record. In my analyses of Opinião’s songs and performances, I listen for the aspects of the performances that attendees identified as important. By combining musical analysis with an investigation of the political discourse around Opinião, I illustrate how politically oriented music making is bound up with issues of power, and how musicians employ a variety of strategies in the face of myriad limiting factors. iii The dissertation of Schuyler Dunlap Whelden is approved. Robert W. Fink John Randal Johnson Tamara Judith-Marie Levitz, Committee Co-Chair Timothy D. Taylor, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2019 iv Para Julia. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ...............................................................................................................................viii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................ix Vita..... .........................................................................................................................................xvii Introduction....................................................................................................................................1 Origins and Effects of the Military Coup ............................................................................9 Cultural Responses to the Coup .........................................................................................15 Opinião ..............................................................................................................................19 Opinião and Popular Music ...............................................................................................24 Methodology ......................................................................................................................26 Chapter Organization .........................................................................................................33 Chapter One. Voicing Opinion in A Theatrical Counterpublic ..............................................37 The Rio de Janeiro Public Sphere....... ...............................................................................40 Publics of the Rio de Janeiro Public Sphere ......................................................................44 Opinião as Counterpublic..... ............................................................................................51 The Makeup of the Opinião Counterpublic .......................................................................55 The Opinion of Opinião.....................................................................................................63 Chapter Two. Nara Leão: A Singer Without a Voice ...............................................................71 The Voice of a Girl Unsettles the Revolution? ..................................................................71 Nara Leão, “Poor Little Rich Girl”.... ................................................................................75 Nara Speaks (Well) ............................................................................................................82 Songs that Say Something .................................................................................................90 “Not just a popular political event, but … a ‘Nara Leão’ event” ....................................105 Speaking the Song ............................................................................................................110 Nara, Heart of a Lion .......................................................................................................120 Chapter Three. Zé Kéti: The Voice of the Morro ...................................................................126 “I am a marginal Brazilian” ............................................................................................131 “I am samba” ..................................................................................................................138 “I work hard” ..................................................................................................................152 “I was hurt”.... ..................................................................................................................163 “I won’t leave” .................................................................................................................169 Marginalidade after Marginality .....................................................................................178 Chapter Four. João do Vale and the Testimonial Voice ........................................................182 The Testimonial Baião .....................................................................................................186 Authenticity and Sincerity ...............................................................................................195 Baião.. ..............................................................................................................................198 “I went dancing in Pedreiras, on Golada Street” .............................................................200 “I’ll go to Rio to carry cement” .......................................................................................206 “They also couldn’t study and can’t even write a baião” ................................................213 “Catch, kill, and eat” ........................................................................................................219 vi Protestations .....................................................................................................................224 Chapter Five. Maria Bethânia: The Voice of Protest .............................................................228 Constructing Bethânia’s Authenticity ..............................................................................232 “Cocorocó” ......................................................................................................................239 “Carcará” ..........................................................................................................................246 Anger and Political Action ...............................................................................................253 Maria Bethânia Guerilla Warrior .....................................................................................257 Chapter Six. Conclusions ..........................................................................................................260 Appendix A. Song Lyrics ...........................................................................................................270 “Acender as Velas” ..........................................................................................................270 “A Voz do Morro” ...........................................................................................................271 “Carcará” ..........................................................................................................................272