Global Mediterranean. Postcolonial music histories (16th-20th centuries). IMS Intercongressional Symposium

Session

Italian colonialism and fascism

FP22

11 Jul 2025, 10:30

Aula 7

Conveners

Italian colonialism and fascism

• Salvatore Morra (University of Cambridge)

112. ‘Roman salutes’ and ethnic makeup in Clemente’s Fracassi’s Aida (1953)

11/07/2025, 10:30

Free paper

Between 1946 and 1956, with most theatres in ruins after the war, approximately twenty opera-films, which proved to be box-office hits, were produced in Italy. Directed by Clemente Fracassi and presenting an abridged version of Verdi’s work, Aida (1953) was the first Italian opera-film in Technicolor, achieving successful distribution across Europe and the United States. Aida’s character was...

37. A Nation at War: The Edition of Rigoletto’s Draft (1941) and Fascist Italy’s Struggle for Supremacy

11/07/2025, 10:50

Free paper

In 1941, only eight months into the war, Italy was clearly becoming Germany’s lackey. In response, as historian Benjamin Martin (2016) highlights, Fascism sought to assert Italian cultural superiority over its militarily mightier ally. Benito Mussolini pursued this goal by ordering an ambitious propaganda campaign for the 40th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death, occurring that same year. A...

29. Sounds of the Empire: Music Exoticism in 1930s Luce Films

11/07/2025, 11:10

Free paper

Istituto Luce's documentaries and newsreels played a pivotal role in the colonial propaganda of Fascist Italy during the 1930s. The films of the Luce's Photographic Department for East Africa, which was established in Asmara at the onset of the Ethiopian War, exemplify colonialist tendencies that would subsequently become the stylistic hallmark of Italian cinematic productions for decades. The...