Roberto Alvim is a Brazilian

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

. He was the founder and director of the Club Noir theatre in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

from 2006 to 2019. Since June 18, 2019, he has served as head director of Ceacen, Center of Performing Arts, in the National Foundation of the Arts (). On November 7, 2019 he was nominated Special Secretary for Culture under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, only to be fired on January 17, 2020, after plagiarizing a speech by German

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

politician

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...

in a government-sanctioned video.

Controversy

Fernanda Montenegro incident

In September 2019, there was push-back against his verbal attack against the actress

Fernanda Montenegro Arlette Pinheiro Esteves Torres ONM (née da Silva; born 16 October 1929), known by her stage name Fernanda Montenegro ( /feʁˈnɐ̃dɐ mõtʃiˈnegɾu/), is a Brazilian stage, television and film actress. Considered by many the greatest Brazil ...

. Roberto Alvim called her "dirty" and "liar" in a Facebook post.

Goebbels' speech

On 16 January 2020, while holding the office of Special Culture Secretary from the Ministry of Tourism, Alvim published a video on the Secretary's official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account in which he paraphrases excerpts from a speech by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

's ''Reichsminister'' of Propaganda. The fact that excerpts from

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

'' were used as the soundtrack for his video was taken by some commentators as an allusion to

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

. The video soon after caused public uproar, and was deleted the following day. In response, Alvim posted a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

update in which he states he "hasn't cited anyone" and that the whole incident was a mere "rhetorical coincidence". Following the public's reaction, on 17 January 2020, Alvim was fired. Addressing the controversy, president

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...

stated: "I repeat our rejection of totalitarian and genocidal ideologies, as well as any allusion to it".

Regina Duarte Regina Blois Duarte (born 5 February 1947) is a Brazilian actress who briefly served as Special Secretary of Culture, a cabinet position in President Jair Bolsonaro's federal administration, from March to May 2020. Political activities Her effo ...

was subsequently invited to be Special Secretary of Culture, succeeding Alvim, but she did not immediately accept the job.

Personal life

Alvim became a born-again Christian during a struggle with cancer.

References

1973 births Living people Brazilian theatre directors Far-right politics in Brazil Neo-Nazism in Brazil {{Brazil-bio-stub