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The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism And Modernity.

Article Excerpt
The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism and Modernity. By Alexandra Wilson. (Cambridge Studies in Opera.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. [xii, 321 p. ISBN-10 0521856884; ISBN-IS 9780521856881. $90.] Illustrations, references, index, appendices.

The cover of Alexandra Wilson's book reproduces a wonderful image of Giacomo Puccini: bowler hat, French cuffs, carefully trimmed moustache. The composer stares back, somewhat suspiciously, at the viewer, his face illuminated by the blaze of a freshly lit cigarette. You want to know who this man's tailor is, and what cafe he frequents. You would probably think twice, however, before entrusting him with one of the crown jewels in your nation's patrimony.

Puccini's role as the inheritor of a three-bund red-year-old tradition of Italian opera, and his seeming unsnitability lor that, position, is the subject of Wilson's study. Carefully studying the construction of the composer's image in the Italian press, Wilson explores how Puccini was tirade to embody both the hopes and the anxieties of the Italian liberal state. During a period when the newly formed nation was increasingly opened up to foreign influence and industrial development, Puccini's operas helped critics articulate, often with surprising vehemence, broader concerns about the trajectory of Italian culture. As VVilson writes, "The Puccini...

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