Performing Fascism: Opera, Politics, and Masculinities in Fascist Italy, 1935-1941
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Performing Fascism: Opera, Politics, and Masculinities in Fascist Italy, 1935-1941 by Elizabeth Crisenbery Department of Music Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Bryan Gilliam, Advisor ___________________________ Benjamin Earle ___________________________ Philip Rupprecht ___________________________ Louise Meintjes ___________________________ Roseen Giles Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music in the Graduate School of Duke University 2020 ABSTRACT Performing Fascism: Opera, Politics, and Masculinities in Fascist Italy, 1935-1941 by Elizabeth Crisenbery Department of Music Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Bryan Gilliam, Advisor ___________________________ Benjamin Earle ___________________________ Philip Rupprecht ___________________________ Louise Meintjes ___________________________ Roseen Giles An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music in the Graduate School of Duke University 2020 Copyright by Elizabeth Crisenbery 2020 Abstract Roger Griffin notes that “there can be no term in the political lexicon which has generated more conflicting theories about its basic definition than ‘fascism’.” The difficulty articulating a singular definition of fascism is indicative of its complexities and ideological changes over time. This dissertation offers fascist performativity as a theoretical lens to better understand how Italian composers interacted with fascism through sustained, performative acts while leaving space to account for the slipperiness of fascist identities. Although opera thrived in fascist Italy (1922-1943), extant scholarship on this period of music history remains scant, promoting a misleading narrative of operatic decline in the twentieth century. This dissertation examines the positions of four Italian opera composers within fascist culture by focusing on the premieres of four operas during the Italian fascist period: Pietro Mascagni’s Nerone (1935), Gian Francesco Malipiero’s Giulio Cesare (1936), Ottorino Respighi’s Lucrezia (1937), and Ennio Porrino’s Gli Orazi (1941). These musical settings of romanità (Roman-ness) were part of Mussolini’s efforts to glorify ancient Rome, a central tenet of fascist ideology. In fascist Italy, a political society that extolled masculinity and musical composition, experiences of difference were often hidden beneath a guise of hypermasculine rhetoric. Opera composers associated with the fascist regime were almost exclusively men and in a patriarchal society with prescribed gender norms, they performed gender. I situate each composer through an investigation of their relationship with the regime, through musical analysis, and an account of the reception of their operas. While not all the composers included in this dissertation were outspoken fascists, or even confirmed members of the National Fascist Party, iv they nevertheless performed fascism to obtain favor with Mussolini and the fascist regime. v Dedication To my parents, my partner, and my puppo. vi Contents Abstract ..............................................................................................................................iv Dedication ..........................................................................................................................vi List of Tables.......................................................................................................................x List of Examples .................................................................................................................xi Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... xiii Introduction. Fascist Operas and Fascist Masculinities .................................................. 1 The Death of Opera in Twentieth Century Italy? ................................................... 6 State of Research .....................................................................................................9 Theoretical Background ........................................................................................ 17 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................... 20 Chapter One. Fascist Italy’s Operatic Patriarch: Pietro Mascagni and his Nerone ...... 24 Fascist Performativity ............................................................................................ 28 Promotional Media for Nerone and Mascagni ...................................................... 35 Romanità in Nerone: The Limits of “Roman Musical Language” and Greek Representation ....................................................................................................... 39 “Long live the Artist!”: An Unconventional Nerone ............................................ 51 “The Battle is Won:” Nerone Reception ............................................................... 56 Conclusion: An Icon in the Fascist Mechanism .................................................. 60 Chapter Two. For Il Duce: Gian Francesco Malipiero’s Giulio Cesare ......................... 63 Julius Caesar and romanità in Fascist Culture .................................................... 67 L’uomo nuovo as Unattainable Paradigm ............................................................ 71 Overlooked by Fascist Musical Bureaucracy ........................................................ 76 Malipiero’s Libretto and the Theatrical Censorship Office ................................. 82 Giulio Cesare Signals an Operatic Parenthesis................................................... 87 Giulio Cesare Reception ........................................................................................ 96 vii Conclusion: Failure to be Favored ........................................................................ 99 Chapter Three. Musical Memoriam and the Politics of ‘Apoliticism’: Ottorino Respighi’s Lucrezia ........................................................................................................ 101 Preserving Ottorino’s Legacy Through Curated Apoliticism ........................... 105 The Reception of Lucrezia: “Homage to the art of the distinguished Maestro 114 Traditionalism and Historicism in Lucrezia ....................................................... 119 Antifeminism in Lucrezia and Fascist Italy ........................................................ 131 Elsa Completed the Incomplete Lucrezia: She Knew the Opera by Heart ........ 139 Conclusion: The Respighis’ Fascist Entanglements ......................................... 143 Chapter Four. The Young Defender of ‘Italian’ Music: Ennio Porrino and his Gli Orazi................................................................................................................................. 146 Antisemitism in Fascist Italy and its Musical Community ................................ 150 Jewish in the Eyes of the State: Guastalla’s Erasure from Gli Orazi................. 158 Traditionalism and Romanità in Gli Orazi .......................................................... 164 Youth, Power, and the Theater of the Masses ................................................... 184 Conclusion: Glorifying Outspoken Antisemitism .............................................. 192 Conclusion. (Epilogue). Encore: Neo-Fascism in the Twenty-First Century .............. 194 Appendix A. Opera Synopses ....................................................................................... 204 Nerone by Pietro Mascagni ................................................................................. 204 Giulio Cesare by Gian Francesco Malipiero ....................................................... 204 Lucrezia by Ottorino Respighi ............................................................................. 205 Gli Orazi by Ennio Porrino ................................................................................... 205 Appendix B. Fascist Timeline ........................................................................................ 207 Appendix C. Analytical Tables ...................................................................................... 209 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 220 Scores ................................................................................................................... 231 Libretti ................................................................................................................... 231 viii Newspaper Articles ............................................................................................. 232 Recordings and Other Media .............................................................................. 233 Biography ........................................................................................................................ 234 ix List of Tables Table 1: Nerone Analysis, Act I ..................................................................................... 210 Table 2: Nerone Analysis Act II ..................................................................................... 211 Table 3: Nerone Analysis, Act III ..................................................................................