Opera and Modern Spectatorship in Late Nineteenth-Century Italy

Alessandra Campana examines four late nineteenth-century operas, Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito, Simon Boccanegra by Verdi, Otello by Verdi and Manon Lescaut by Puccini, and a silent film scored by Mascagni, to explore for the first time how opera participated in the making of a modern public in post-unification Italy.