Ópera do Malandro (transl.The Scoundrel's Opera) is a 1979 Brazilian musical play written by Chico Buarque and directed by Luiz Antônio Martinez Corrêa.
The Ópera do Malandro reveals past features of Brazilian culture that still persist.
Apimp called Duran disguises himself as a successful salesman. Vitória was a madam who also lived by prostituting herself. Her daughter, Teresinha, had fallen in love with an upper-class citizen, Max Overseas, a man that lived off corruption in complicity with the chief police officer, Chaves. The other characters are prostitutes, presented as saleswomen in a clothes store, and the promiscuous transvestite Geni, who was frequently attacked with rocks; people used to say she was "useful" because of this.
The play's action takes place in the 1940s; its theme: gambling prohibition, prostitution and smuggling. Then it shows a context similar to the third millennium, with piracy and other black-market activities.
Max Overseas really works in international businesses, even on the threshold of legality, in collusion with a pimp and the chief Police officer.
All of the songs are composed by Chico, who, due to his brightness, manages to make them in harmony with the text. The song Geni e o Zepelim (the overture), tells about a transvestite whose only gift or skill is to be a "whipping-post" for the neighborhood. This fact, that is only revealed to spectators of the show, means that she has no value.
Nevertheless, when the captain of a bright zeppelin intends to bombard the city, accepting to change his mind only if he had a one night stand with the transvestite, all the citizens ask her to consent to the captain's desires.
The songs follow the pattern of rhymed and metrical verses, according to the intellectual tradition of the author's family.[1]
^Chico Buarque (1 June 1978). "Ópera do Malandro". Site Oficial de Chico Buarque. Archived from the original on 2 October 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
