She is known to have been active there in 1786, when she was engaged to perform at the festivities arranged in celebration of the royal marriage that year.
She was the first woman of African heritage from the Americas to perform on stage in Portugal, and possibly in Europe.
When the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos was inaugurated in Lisbon in 1793 however, there was a call for women to be allowed to perform onstage in the capital again.
The ban was thus lifted, and in 1795 three women were engaged to perform at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos: Mariana Albani, Luisa Gerbini and Joaquina Lapinha.
In 1811, after the Portuguese royal family had fled to Brazil, she was chosen to perform for John VI of Portugal in Rio de Janeiro.