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Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale | Vol. 54 | December 2018

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Research Article

The Italian Opera Culture in Constantinople During the Nineteenth Century

New Data and Some Ideological Issues

Vittorio Cattelan    Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia    

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abstract

Among the Turkish lyrics of Giuseppe Donizetti there are texts of singular modernity that exalt the Christians and Muslims’ brotherhood and accurately manifest the Tanzimat ideological value. Donizetti and other Italian composers took part in a metissage project also involving the Levantine community but above all the Constantinopolitan Armenians who managed the theatres and edited noteworthy translations of dramma per musica. The Italian composers, moreover, in writing Ottoman lyrics with Latin letters, apparently only to simplify the singer’s reading, actually paved the way to the literacy process of modern Turkey. This essay aims to re-evaluate Italian opera’s role in the Westernist aspiration context of 19th century Turkey.

Published
Dec. 6, 2018
Accepted
Oct. 2, 2018
Submitted
July 6, 2018
Language
EN

Keywords: Armenian-Turkish • Multi-confessionalism • Tanzimat • Italian Opera • Constantinople

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2018/01/028

Copyright: © 2018 Vittorio Cattelan. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.