João de Sousa Carvalho (22 February 1745 – c. 1798) was the foremost
Portuguesecomposer of his generation.
Born in
Estremoz, he studied music from 1753 at the
Colégio dos Santos Reis in
Vila Viçosa, then from 1761 at the Conservatório di Sant' Onofrio a Porta Capuana in
Naples. In 1766 his setting of
Metastasio’s operatic libretto La Nitteti was performed in Rome. The following year, he joined the Irmandade de Santa Cecília at
Lisbon and was appointed professor of
counterpoint in the Seminário da Patriarcal, where he later served as mestre (1769–1773) and mestre de capela (1773–1798). In 1778, he became music teacher to the royal family. He died in 1798 in
Alentejo at the age of 53.
His numerous church works are written in a style similar to that of
Niccolò Jommelli and, sometimes,
Haydn. Several of his opere serie and
serenatas were performed at the royal palaces of
Ajuda and
Queluz. Some of his keyboard music survives and is occasionally played today.
Some compositions
L’amore industrioso, 1769 (revived 1943, 1967)
Eumene (dramma serio per musica), 1773
L’Angelica (serenata), 1778
Perseo (serenata), 1779
Testoride argonauta (dramma), 1780 (revived 1987)
Seleuco, re di Siria (dramma), 1781
Everardo II, re di Lituania (dramma), 1782
Penelope nella partenza da Sparta (dramma per musica), 1782