Rossini’s operas often feature a situation in which a father opposes his daughter’s love for a man, since he has destined her for marriage to another man on account of financial and/or political convenience. The essay investigates this situation in the context of the family, marriage, and intergenerational relationships at the time, which have received sustained historical scrutiny. Ancien régime society had promoted an extended patrilinear family based on the principle of paternal authority, but in the second half of the eighteenth century this model was questioned by a new attention to an individual’s right to happiness. The insistence on these themes in early nineteenth-century serious opera is symptomatic of concerns raised by the crisis of traditional family institutions inscribed in reformist and revolutionary laws, which the Restoration was trying to counter – with little success. Rossini’s operas stage these preoccupations by promoting models of aristocratic self-control, in opposition to the immediate expression of feeling encouraged by Enlightenment and Romantic culture.
Preoccupazioni famigliari nella dramaturgia (seria) di Rossini
Fabrizio Emanuele Della Seta
2018-01-01
Abstract
Rossini’s operas often feature a situation in which a father opposes his daughter’s love for a man, since he has destined her for marriage to another man on account of financial and/or political convenience. The essay investigates this situation in the context of the family, marriage, and intergenerational relationships at the time, which have received sustained historical scrutiny. Ancien régime society had promoted an extended patrilinear family based on the principle of paternal authority, but in the second half of the eighteenth century this model was questioned by a new attention to an individual’s right to happiness. The insistence on these themes in early nineteenth-century serious opera is symptomatic of concerns raised by the crisis of traditional family institutions inscribed in reformist and revolutionary laws, which the Restoration was trying to counter – with little success. Rossini’s operas stage these preoccupations by promoting models of aristocratic self-control, in opposition to the immediate expression of feeling encouraged by Enlightenment and Romantic culture.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
