Operetta and the Politics of Light Entertainment in Fascist Italy

OPPLEFIT radically rethinks the cultural politics of Fascist Italy (1922–43) by examining a unique music-theatrical genre – operetta – from historical, theoretical and historiographical angles. Still globally popular when Mussolini took power in 1922, operetta was swiftly folded into a ‘corporatist’ vision of Fascist society. Yet unlike opera or cinema, operetta has been neglected both by historians of music and of Fascism. OPPLEFIT uses operetta’s liminal position between art and entertainment to nuance outdated models of ‘totalitarian’ culture stressing top-down control of cultural production, ill-suited to Italian fascism and a poor fit for transnational popular culture. OPPLEFIT also confronts the legacy of Fascist popular culture by analysing the marginal but ongoing performance tradition of the best-known Italian operettas, all products of the Fascist era yet never acknowledged as such.OPPLEFIT reaches its aims via intensive archival work in Italian libraries. An initial ‘census’ of Fascist operetta recovers material traces (scores, libretti, scripts, recordings) of now-forgotten works. Core historical research focuses on operetta’s multifaceted politicisation under Fascism; critical evaluation of Italian operetta’s postwar historiography sheds new light on Italy’s partial reckoning with its Fascist past.The project is based at the University of Milan, a key centre for research in musicology and Fascist history, ideally placed for archival work across Italy. OPPLEFIT is supervised by Professor Emilio Sala, a leading expert on Italian opera and popular entertainment, and profits from two three-month secondments at the Deutsches Historisches Institute, Rome and the University of Birmingham, UK. OPPLEFIT’s dissemination plan notably augments my publication record, builds my skills in public engagement, and grows research networks between Italian, German and British academia, putting me in a strong position to secure permanent academic employment in the ERA.