(República Portuguesa). South-western European state located in the Iberian Peninsula (92,152 km²). Capital: Lisbon. Administrative division: districts (18). Population: 10,276,617 (2018 estimate). Language: Portuguese (official). Religion: Catholics 68.8%, atheists 5.8%, Protestants 0.7%, Orthodox 0.5%, Muslims 0.2%, other Christians 1.5%, others 22.4%. Monetary unit: euro (100 cents). Human Development Index: 0.847 (41st place). Borders: Spain (N and E); Atlantic ocean (S and W). Member of: Council of Europe, EBRD, NATO, OCDE, UN, OSCE, EU, OAS and WTO observer.
CULTURE: THEATER
There is little documentation on medieval theater, both sacred and giullaresco: if the latter (in the form of momos) was certainly widespread, it is probable that the former did not assume the same importance in Portugal as elsewhere according to petwithsupplies. For the fifteenth century there is news of grandiose court feasts, in the nature of theatrical representation, such as that of the wedding between the Infanta Isabella and Filippo di Borgogna (1429). In these festivals, use was made of stage machines, the same ones found in the works of Gil Vicente (ca. 1460-ca. 1536). After the great fortune of the gilvicentino theater, the shows multiplied not only at the court, but in the homes of the nobles and also of the rich bourgeois; Camões himself refers to it. The humanistic taste introduced in universities, especially in Coimbra, the use of representations of ancient classics (Sophocles, Seneca, Plautus, Terentius). At the end of the sixteenth century the pátios appeared, analogous to the corralesSpanish, specifically intended for the theater. Among them the Pátio das Arcas in Lisbon, where, at the time of the Spanish domination, important Castilian companies performed. The eighteenth century marked the advent of Italian opera, with a clear predominance of the musical spectacle; and it was the century in which the profession of the actor was socially specified. Also in Lisbon, the Teatro do Bairro Alto was famous, where the works of António José da Silva (1705-39) were performed and whose company (the 1764 contracts are preserved) had a long life, with performers such as José Félix, José Procópio, Maria Joaquina. In 1794 the actor-manager António José de Paula founded the Teatro do Salitre there. The arrival of the French company directed by E. Doux dates back to 1833, which remained in Portugal at the request of Almeida Garrett, who, becoming a reformer of the theater not only as the author of romantic dramas but as a legislator, he established the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon in 1846, the central and principal place of the most prestigious stage activity. In the passage between the century. The company linked to the names of Eduardo Brasão and Lucília Simões, exceptional interpreters both of the Shakespearean and romantic repertoire, and of the naturalist and bourgeois one, mainly acted there. Another important actress was Adelina Abranches, who acted in the capital at the Teatro D. Amélia, inaugurated in 1894. Renovating activity carried out by the Italian set designer Luigi Manini. In 1904 the actor Luciano de Castro founded the Livre Theater, also in Lisbon, in imitation of Antoine’s Parisian one; Araújo Pereira acted there, who can be considered the first director in the strict sense. In 1946 the Estúdio do Salitre appeared, on the initiative of the Italian writer Gino Saviotti, who among other things revealed the works of Luís Francisco Rebêlo. But the twentieth century was marked for a long time by the almost monopolistic prestige of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (of which Amélia Rey Colaço and Robles Monteiro became concessionaires in 1935), with an eclectic repertoire, sporadic collaboration of avant-garde scenographers (Almada-Negreiros) and foreign directors (Erwin Meyenburg, Cayetano Luca de Tena), with the creation of outdoor shows (In Castro in 1935, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, etc.). The director Francisco Ribeiro’s activity is noteworthy, first with Os comediantes de Lisboa (1945-50), then at the Teatro Nacional Popular (1957-60). But a real turning point took place with the appearance of art theaters, such as the Teatro Experimental do Porto (since 1953, founder A. Pedro) and the Teatro de Arte de Lisboa (directed by O. Vitorino). Despite the difficulties with the Salazar censorship, these theaters brought the best modern repertoire to Portugal. Finally, it should be remembered the vast activity of the magazine theater, in the forties, on the initiative of the Italian impresario Piero Bernardon, and from 1953 on the impulse of the actor and director Eugénio Salvador, who made use of the work of the set designer Pinto de Campos. On April 25, 1974, a wide debate, journalistic and legislative, opened for the creation of a national theater (both of popular culture and of research and experimentation) with public management.
