Opera and Absolutism in Restoration Italy, 1815-1860

Bibliographic Data

ID3480140
AuthorsJohn A Davis (0000-0002-5809-5976, Emiliana Pasca Noether Chair of Modern Italian History, University of Connecticut, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume36
Issue4
Pages569-594
Publication date2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/jinh.2006.36.4.569
OpenAlexW2075190142
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited6

Opera played an important part in the lives of urban Italians during the decades that followed the fall of Napoleon's European empire and the restoration of the Italian legitimist rulers by the Congress of Vienna. To argue, however, that opera mattered because of its association with nationalism is to get the formula the wrong way around. Nationalists, as well as political authorities, wanted to harness opera to their cause because of its inherent social significance. The theater offered urban, educated Italians the opportunity to be entertained and to congregate lawfully in a public place. The fact that the theaters continued to draw regular audiences, regardless of censorship, would seem a sure indication that politics-at least not in the narrow, nationalist sense-was not the primary reason why opera mattered

Absolute monarchy · Art · Art history · Censorship · Economic history · Empire · Literature · Nationalism · Opera · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Political History Analysis · Historical and Literary Analyses · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Law · Musicology and Musical Analysis

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub