Opera: how Italian TV has changed in just 150 years
Yesterday I felt I needed to confront with a different point of view on the world so I decided to… dress up and go to the Opera. To relax and indulge in a very posh activity I went to see… Il Trovatore by Verdi.
I am absolutely amazed by how they did not censor it at that time. Probably it was not considered too subversive. Probably thanks to Berlusconi our idea of subversive has changed. Nowadays Berlusconi would censor it straight away. And fire Verdi with recorded delivery mail. But that were other times. When people were allowed to criticize people in power. Even though there was a monarchy. And they were in a much better mental health than Italian people at the moment.
The reason why people in power would tolerate Verdi’s opera is that at that time the Sabaudian kingdom was trying to unite Italy under its power and send away the Austrians who were occupying the north-east. Nabucco would incite Italian people to get their land back, just as the Israelites in the Bible. But Verdi wrote much more than that.
Both in Rigoletto and Il Trovatore the role of the artist is discussed in his relationship with power. In Rigoletto the artist who serves power is finally betrayed by his master in the most awful way: he seduces, abandons and kill his daughter (a symbol of his artistic work). In Il Trovatore the artist fights against power. Takes away from the Count the woman he wants (to symbolize that he is taking away his art and stating its autonomy from the dominant discourse) and gets all the public support for his fight. Until he dies. And we find out that he was the Count’s brother. Just to make clear that the guerrilla man is nothing but the brother of the powerful man. It is just by a matter of chance that he is in that position. Because he was brought up in a different place.
In Rigoletto it is amazing how Verdi criticizes the discourse of the powerful nobleman and play-boy: when he repeatedly sings the famous aria ‘La donna è mobile’ (Women are easy) after seducing and abandoning many women, including Rigoletto’s daughter, people in the audience really hate him. What he says really does not match with what is going on. He can convince poor women to fall in love with him with his words but he won’t convince the audience to approve his behavior by saying that it is women’s fault. Because it is them who are easy. Here we find again the discourse of seduction by the play-boy to symbolize and criticize political discourse. And you go away not being able to remove from your mind that song, ‘La donna è mobile’, as a warning to keep in mind the next time you hear a politician speak.
I must thank Professor D’Angelo, who is in charge of the Italian Department at Ramapo College, for making me get to know opera. She took us visiting scholars and a bunch of students to see Madame Butterfly last November. One of the many cases of poor women seduced and abandoned. And that made me understand how much I like opera. W Verdi!
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