Rio de Janeiro, (EFE).- With a tribute to Arlindo Cruz, a historic samba composer with health problems since he suffered a stroke in 2017, the Imperio Serrano group began this Sunday the famous parades of the “escolas” of samba of the Special Group of the carnival of Rio de Janeiro.
The group from the Madureira neighborhood, nine times champion of the Rio carnival and which this year returned to the Special Group (a kind of first division), was the first to appear among the six “escolas” that will parade in the Rio de Janeiro sambadrome between the night of this Sunday and early Monday morning.
And he did it without having to face the storms that were scheduled for this Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, which threatened the parades and forced other cities to cancel their parties after the death of 24 people.
Another six “escolas” will parade on Monday night and the juries will define on Wednesday, among the twelve, the champion of the 2023 edition of the Rio de Janeiro carnival and the two that descend to the second division.
In an attempt to regain the title, which has eluded it since 1982, Imperio Serrano opted to turn its parade into a grandiose tribute to Arlindo Cruz, the popular composer who was the author of the lyrics of the sambas that he brought to the sambadrome in eleven different editions of the carnival.
The parade entitled “Places of Arlindo” recreated the song “O meu lugar” along the 700 meters of the sambadrome, one of the composer’s greatest classics and which recounts the simple life of cariocas in the suburbs and favelas of Rio, where the musicians gather in backyards to cheer up the neighbors.
The music also stood out as one of the places in Arlindo, the headquarters of Imperio Serrano, the composer’s “school” at heart: “Receive our thanks, king of this land. This is your place.”
A 50-meter float and a 15-meter statue
In its tribute to the historic composer, Imperio Serrano brought the largest allegorical floats in its history to the sambadrome. Only the “open-wings” float, which opened the parade, was 50 meters long divided into three bodies.
This float carried nine gigantic crowns, the symbol of the Serrano Empire, and eleven enormous articulated dragons that took over to attack an also enormous Saint George.
Another float carried a 15-meter-high sculpture of Xangô, the orixá (Afro-Brazilian deity) to which Arlindo Cruz is entrusted, from whose back a cascade of water fell.
“We wanted to excite the richness of the universe of Arlindo Cruz, but also cause an impact on the public and bring back the glory of the great carnivals, when we were always among the first”, explained Alex Souza, general director of the parade.
The parades of the “escolas” of the Special Group, each with some 3,500 musicians, dancers and prominent figures, as well as gigantic floats, are the main attraction of the Rio carnival and considered the world’s greatest outdoor spectacle.
