As an officer of the Ministério da Fazenda, he resided mostly in New York and London.
[2] He was one of the "Second Nationalist Generation" of Brazilian composers along with Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez (1897-1948) and Walter Burle-Marx (1902-1990).
[1] Ovalle's best known song is Azulão, "bluebird", a canção to a text by Manuel Bandeira.
[4] It has been recorded by Conchita Badia, Victoria de los Angeles, Arleen Auger, Montserrat Caballé, Kathleen Battle, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Angela Gheorghiu and many other sopranos.
It has also been transposed to be sung by other voices - such as by Gérard Souzay, and by Addiss & Crofut, 1966.