Publishings

 

Gloria Staffieri

This volume frames Verdi’s creativity growth (from Nabucco to Battaglia di Legnano) on the background of the impact generated on the Italian scene by the “grand opéra”, a new kind of show coming from Paris, celebrated by the Romantic generation as a symbol of modernity. Thanks to an extensive documentation, the complex events following the confrontation between this particular genre – that brought on stage the masses and history – and an Italian reality permeated with turmoil, are reconstructed.

The numbers alone reveal that the imported “grand opéra” phenomenon was everything but irrelevant as perceived so far: from 1827 to 1848 twelve “grands operas” (differently translated, adapted or rewritten) crossed the Alps for a total, including “premières” and other performances, of a couple of thousand shows. But even more interesting is the dynamic push that such repertoire was able to impress on the Italian cultural renewal and to melodrama in particular on one hand and to the political mobilization and to the fight for liberty on the other hand: an effort that was exploited and embraced especially by Verdi.