A Brasilian renaissance man, a poet, playwright,
composer, diplomat, Vinícius de Moraes was a man who lived in interesting times
and made the most of it. He is described as the most beat of all the Brasilian
authors of his time. Born on 19 October 1915, he wrote his first lyrics at the
age of fifteen and his first book of poetry in 1933. With Antonio Carlos Jobin,
he penned the Bossa standards, Chega de Sudade (No More Blues), A
Felicidade (Happiness), and Garota de Impanerna (Girl from Impanema).
He was the most prolific lyricist of the Bossa movement, penning over two hundred
songs. Claus Schreiner says, "if he were born a century earlier he would be
a troubadour or one of the anonymous authors of folktales and moral tales in
rhymed verse."
He studied English Poetry at Oxford, graduating from Law School; he was stationed
as a diplomat from 1945-1950 in Los Angeles, where he became Vice Counsel, and
in 1953 in Paris. It was there that he sold his story Orfeu da Coneiçâo
to Sacha Gordine as a film project. The story was a retelling of the Greek myth
of Orpheus and Eurydice in the favelas, or slums of Rio during Carnival. The
play Orefu da Coneiçâo staged in Rio de Janero 1956, along with the Jobin
soundtrack, launched the Bossa movement in Brasil. When the film Orpheo Negro,
or Black Orpheus was released in 1959 it brought the glare of international
attention; it won the Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award
for Best Foreign Film that year. He died in 1980 during an artistic period where
he was collaborating with Toquinho, another Bossa Nova guitarist. There work
together as a duo spanned sixteen albums, in performing as in his composing,
Vinícius contributed the poetic lyricism that was his life's greatest achievement.
Works consulted
www.slipcue.com/music/brazil.vinicius.html
www.vivabrazil.com/vinicius.htm
Jack O'Niel (producer). Brasil: A Century of Song. Bethpage: Blue Jacket.
1995.