Background
Diogo Dias Melgás was born in Cuba, Alentejo, on 14 April 1638.
Diogo Dias Melgás was born in Cuba, Alentejo, on 14 April 1638.
He was a choirboy at the Colégio da Claustra in Évora in 1646. He took holy orders at the Cathedral of Évora, where he stayed the rest of his life, being a student of Manuel Rebelo, and holding the position of mestre de capela for about 30 years. He died blind and extremely poor on 3 February 1700.
He was the last of the great Portuguese polyphonic masters, who began to flourish in Évora in the second half of the sixteenth century.