São Paulo – Samba school Império de Casa Verde paraded in São Paulo’s carnival last Saturday (22) night having Lebanon as its theme. The school stood in the top ten out of the 14 schools that performed in Anhembi Sambadrome and took over 2,000 members to the runway. The enredo (plot-theme) was “Marhaba Lubnãn,” which is Arab for “Hello, Lebanon!”
The school paraded on the dawn of Saturday. Império de Casa Verde’s final score was 269.2. The winning school, Águia de Ouro, received 269.9. Império de Casa Verde received a perfect score in several requisites such as enredo, samba-enredo (theme-song), hamony, mestre-sala and porta-bandeira, and drumming wing.
Dressed in gold, blue and pink, the queen of the drums section was Valeska Reis, who has a long history parading in São Paulo’s Carnaval. The school took a lot of blue and green, a reference to the Mediterranean Sea, to the Sambadrome, and had a float full of sea creatures and many fantasies with this topic.
Império de Casa Verde presented floats in honor of the Lebanese markets – called souks in the Arab countries – and the Beaufort Castle in South Lebanon. One wing was composed of Lebanese. The school also brought the Phoenician alphabet, spaces showing the Phoenicians, Assyrians, and other influences of the country’s history, and characters such as the guardians of the Lebanese ancestry. A car with tigers and other elements illustrated Brazil-Lebanon ties and relations.
In early 2019, the school’s carnavalesco (carnaval director) Flávio Campello was in Lebanon researching to develop the enredo. The school gave a briefing to songwriters to compose, and twelve sambas were entered. The winning group was Chefia, Carlos Jr. Gui Cruz, Armênio Poesia, Darlan Alvez, Fredy Vianna, Rodrigo Minuetto, Rodolfo Minuetto, and Xandinho Nocera.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
