Joaquina Lapinha (born before 1786 - died after 1811) was an Afro-Portuguese (Brazilian) opera singer.Rosana Marreco Brescia: Half-Caste Actresses in Portuguese American Opera Houses. Latin American Theatre Review, 2012 She was the first Afro-American singer to have performed in Portugal and likely in Europe.

Life

She was born in the Portuguese colony of Brazil and as such a Portuguese citizen. She belonged to the class of

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

and was born free to the free colored woman Maria da Lapa. She was engaged at the eldest Opera House in America, the Casa da Ópera de Vila Rica in the city of Vila Rica in Minas Gerais, which was managed by João de Souza Lisboa in 1770-1822. Free people of color were the most common category of people employed on stage in colonial Brazil at that time. She is known to have been active there in 1786, when she was enaged to perform at the festivities arranged in celebration of the royal marriage that year. In 1791, she left Brazil for Portugal in the company of her mother and two female slaves. She made a successful tour as a singer in Portugal. She was the first woman of African heritage from the Americas to perform on stage in Portugal, and possibly in Europe. At that time, women had formally been banned from performing onstage in Portugal since the dismissal of Anna Zamperini in 1774, although in practice, the ban was only enforced in the main capital of

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. When the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos was inaugurated in Lisbon in 1793 however, there was a call for women to be allowed to perform onstage in the capital again. The ban was thus lifted, and in 1795 three women were engaged to perform at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos: Mariana Albani, Luisa Gerbini and Joaquina Lapinha. Lapinha had a successful career at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon in 1795-1805. In 1805 she returned to Brazil, where she continued her career in Rio de Janeiro. In 1811, after the Portuguese royal family had fled to Brazil, she was chosen to perform for

John VI of Portugal , house = Braganza , father = Peter III of Portugal , mother = Maria I of Portugal , birth_date = , birth_place = Queluz Palace, Queluz, Portugal , death_date = , death_place = Bemposta Palace, Lisbon, Portugal , ...

in Rio de Janeiro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapinha, Joaquina 18th-century births 19th-century deaths 18th-century Brazilian women 18th-century Brazilian artists 19th-century Brazilian women singers 18th-century Portuguese women Free people of color 18th-century Portuguese musicians 18th-century Portuguese actresses