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Overview
The next best thing to being there. An exhilarating photographic celebration of Rio's annual Carnival is paired with a CD of the rhythms and sounds of the festival.
"É Carnaval!" It's carnival time! Each year, usually in February though sometimes early March, Rio de Janeiro erupts in an ecstatic fiesta of pulsating music, swirling dancers, and radiant costumes. From all over the world, tens of thousands of people descend upon Rio for festivities lasting four days and four nights. Carnival is the Brazilian version of Mardi Gras, an exuberant holiday that comes just before Lent, and it consumes the entire city.
In Carnival in Rio, Helmut Teissl's vibrant, full-color photographs capture the unique pageantry and euphoria of the world's largest party. While the book is a feast for the eyes, the accompanying CD puts you right in the middle of the throbbing madness of Rio's samba, the dance of Carnival, whose rhythms were brought to Brazil by African slaves. Twelve live recordings plus eight of the best sambas in the world let you hear firsthand Rio's outpouring of unadulterated joy. Together, the book and CD offer an astonishing visual and audio adventure.
Carnival's main event is a parade that features a contest between Rio's escolas de samba, samba clubs that compete for the best song, rhythm, dancing, and costumes. Virtually every neighborhood in Rio has an escola de samba that practices throughout the year, harboring dreams of glory at Carnival time. Throughout the festival, many smaller, more spontaneous processions fill the streets of Rio. Anyone can jump in at the end of the passing bandas (marching bands of brass and percussion) and share in the revelry. These celebrations, as well as the nocturnal extravagance of Rio's innumerable costume balls, are all recorded in this book, which will appeal to anyone interested in the singular experience of Carnival.
About the Author:
Author and photographer Helmut Teissl was born in Villach, Austria, in 1947 and has been taking pictures since he was a child. Over the years he has come to specialize in nature and landscape photography. In 1974, on his first trip to Rio de Janeiro, he fell in love with Carnival. In the past 25 years, Teissl has witnessed Carnival 12 times. He continues to live in Villach.