Opera e Risorgimento: si può dire ancora qualcosa?

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.