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Between cosmopolitanism and nationhood: Italian opera in the early nineteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Carlotta Sorba
Carlotta Sorba*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
*
∗Email: carlotta.sorba@unipd.it
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Abstract

The revival of interest in music evident in recent historiography has led to an investigation of the specifically transnational nature of musical languages and practices. This article explores the possibility of re-reading in a transnational perspective the classical theme of the relationship between the Risorgimento and opera. It focuses on two different points of view: on the one hand, the construction of the librettos as a delicate balance between European romantic narratives and dramatic themes evoking nationalistic sentiments; on the other, the fact that ideas and practices of the theatre as a vehicle of political mobilisation developed in a broad international context where Mazzini and many other nationalists found inspiration in multinational political experiences and discourses. The article concludes by saying that the meanings of terms such as cosmopolitanism and nationalism need to be carefully weighed when we look at nineteenth-century opera production. Only in the closing decades of the century did genuine competition between national traditions arise, which led in Italy to a veritable ‘obsession’ with ‘Italianness’ in music.

Keywords

musicoperaRisorgimentopolitical and theatrical activism
Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 19 , Issue 1: The Italian Risorgimento: transnational perspectives , February 2014 , pp. 53 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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