#brpd historical figures

[caroline-klaus]

Brazilian Period Drama + Historical Figures [2/-]

✧ Roberta Rodrigues as Dona Ivone Lara in “Nise - O Coração da Loucura” / “Nise - The Heart of Madness” (2016)

Dona Ivone Lara (April 13, 1921 – April 16, 2018), the artistic name of Yvonne Lara da Costa, was a Brazilian singer, composer and nurse known as "The Queen of Samba" and "The First Lady of Samba". Born in Rio de Janeiro, she was the oldest child of João da Silva Lara, a bicycle mechanic and guitarist, and Emerentina Bento da Silva, a seamstress and singer, both closely linked to Carnaval. At six years old she was orphaned from both parents and was send by relatives to a public boarding school. At 12 Ivone composed her first samba "Tiê, Tiê". At school she took singing lessons from Zaíra Oliveira and Lucília Villa-Lobos and was conducted by Lucília's husband, the Brazilian composer and conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos. Leaving school at 17, she went to live with an uncle, a musician who introduced her to their musical community. In 1945, Ivone joined the samba school Prazer da Serrinha, where she met future music partners. She was composing actively at that time, but couldn't present herself as a composer due to the prejudice against women in samba. Ivone then asked her cousin, Fuleiro, also a songwriter, to present her sambas as if they were his own. At 25 she married Oscar Costa, with whom she had two sons: Alfredo and Odir.

Ivone graduated in nursing and later social work, and specialized in Occupational Therapy, dedicating herself to work in psychiatric hospitals. In 1947 she began working at the National Service of Mental Disorders where she met the psychiatrist Nise da Silveira, who revolutionized the practice of psychiatry in Brazil. Ivone Lara played a fundamental role in the revolution undertaken by Dr Nise. The nurse traveled locating the relatives who had abandoned their families in the hospital. She also collaborated so that music could be a medicine for the patients, using her contacts to get sponsorship and buy musical instruments for the institution. With that, she created a music workshop, who held events that promoted the socialization among patients, their families and hospital staff. Ivone worked in the institution for 37 years, until she retired in 1977. While working as a nurse Ivone had little free time to dedicate to artistic presentations, which were held usually on her vacations.

In 1947 her samba "Nasci Para Sofrer (I Was Born to Suffer)" was the one adopted by the Prazer da Serrinha samba school in the Carnaval contest of that year. Ivone joined samba school Império Serrano after it's fundation in 1947. There she composed the samba "Não me Perguntes (Don't Ask Me)", who achieved great popularity at the school. Her consecration as a composer came in 1965, with "Os Cinco Bailes da História do Rio (The Five Balls of the History of Rio)", when she became the first woman to become part of the ala de compositores (Wing of the Composers) of a samba school. After that Ivone gained wider exposure and started to make appearances on recordings of other singers, interpreting mostly her own songs. In 1968, she was chosen as the godmother of the composer’s wing of the Império Serrano samba school and began to parade in the ala das baianas (Wing of the Baianas) during Carnaval parades. In 1974, Ivone finally recorded her first album and started to present herself often. Her song "Sonho Meu" was awarded in 1978 as the best of the year and her music began to be recorded by various famous artists. More hits and awards followed and she continued to record and to perform before live audiences in Brazil and other countries in the next decades. In 2012 Dona Ivone's life was the theme of the Império Serrano Samba School in the Carnaval parade of that year. In 2015 her last album was released. Dona Ivone Lara died in Rio de Janeiro on April 16, 2018 at the age of 97. [**]

[caroline-klaus]

Brazilian Period Drama + Historical Figures [1/-]

✧ Luisa Micheletti as Noémi Thierry in “Novo Mundo” (2017)

Noémi Thierry was a French dancer that lived in Brazil in the 19th century. Described as young, beautiful and educated, Noémi came from a family of dancers and artists. In 1816 she resided in Rio de Janeiro, where the Portuguese Royal Family lived, with her father, mother and at last one sister.

Noémi is best known for being the first lasting affair of the then Prince of Brazil Dom Pedro (1798-1834), the future Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and King Dom Pedro IV of Portugal. Pedro and Noémi met during one of her presentations at a theater in Rio and they fell in love. The Prince went as far as to take his lover to live with him in the Palace of São Cristovão, the official residence of the Portuguese Royal Family in Brazil and to call Noémi his wife. Their affair lasted for months and in 1817 Noémi was pregnant, the first known child of the future Emperor. Dom Pedro did not attempt to conceal his relationship with Noémi, which could ruin the plans of his father, the King Dom João VI of Portugal, who was trying to arrange the marriage of Pedro to an European princess.

The betrothal of Pedro to the Habsburg princess Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria was settled, and to avoid jeopardizing it Pedro's mother, Queen consort Carlota Joaquina of Spain, negotiated with Noémi so she could leave the court and end the affair. The French dancer was relutant, but agreed to leave. Noémi was indenized with a sizable sum of money, clothes for her unborn child and a marriage to a Portuguese officer. Noémi and her husband settled in Recife, Pernambuco, a state in the Northeast region of Brazil, far away from Rio.

On 13 May 1817, Dom Pedro was married by proxy to Maria Leopoldina and she arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 5 November 1817. In 1818 Noémi gave birth to her child with Prince Dom Pedro, a stillborn boy named Pedro. It's unknown what happened to Noémi Thierry after that. [**]