Opera e Risorgimento: si può dire ancora qualcosa?
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Abstract
The article critically reviews the musicological discussion, arisen since the
mid-1990s, on the relationship between Italian opera, Verdi and the Risorgimento,
in order to highlight the main ideological assumptions of the different
positions. A new reading is proposed, starting not from the ‘external’
historical data but from the dramatic-musical language of the operas;
this is understood as a semiotic system that is a vehicle of historical meaning.
The analysis focuses on five topics recurring in the Verdian oeuvre,
and, to a lesser extent, in other authors: 1) the oath; 2) the old warrior; 3) the
role of women; 4) the intra-family and inter-generational relationships;
5) the potential conflicts between social classes. Finally, it is suggested that
these topics, understandable to anyone living in the social and cultural
context of nineteenth-century Italy, could be interpreted as an invitation to
political action by the narrow elites engaged in the Risorgimento movement