Antonio Carlos Gomes

Antonio Carlos Gomes came from Campinas, Brazil, where his father was a town bandmaster. After early success in Rio de Janeiro he won the support of Emperor Pedro II to study in Milan, and he spent most of his career in Italy, writing operas in the Italian style of his day.

His breakthrough was Il Guarany, an opera about the love between a Guarani man and a Portuguese woman, based on a Brazilian novel. It premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1870 and made him the first composer from the Americas to earn a real reputation in European opera houses. In Brazil he remains a national figure, and the opera's overture has long been used to open the country's daily national radio broadcast.

Il Guarany is the place to start, and its overture alone gives you the flavor in about ten minutes.