[3] Liszt said that “it displays dense technical maturity, full of harmonic and orchestral maturity.” [4] He was born on 11 July 1836 in Campinas, São Paulo Province, son of Maestro Manuel José Gomes and Fabiana Maria Jaguari Cardoso.

His childhood's musical tendencies were soon stimulated by his father and by his older brother, José Pedro de Sant'Ana Gomes, also a conductor.

Returning to Italy, Carlos Gomes married Adelina Peri, an Italian pianist he had met while studying in Milan.

When he returned to Italy, he dedicated himself to the composition of an opera themed against slavery, inspired by the liberation struggle of black slaves in Brazil, which got the title of Lo schiavo.

In the following years, he composed the opera Condor and the cantata Colombo, for the Columbus Festival (12 October 1892), in celebration of the fourth centenary of the discovery of America.

Invited by the governor of the Brazilian province of Pará to direct the Musical Conservatory, the maestro traveled to the capital Belém, willing to take the position.