Abstract

The works of Smareglia constitute an historical and historiographic case that can be interpreted through the prism of the nationalism/cosmopolitanism antithesis. The scant diffusion of Smareglia's operas in Italy and their limited critical success might be explained by their exclusion from an editorial marketplace that was both divided and contrary (Giulio Ricordi, Edoardo Sonzogno) but at the same time inspired by a cultural project of "italianità" in which Smareglia's supranational and classicalromantic dimension was unable to find a place. This theme is investigated through the examination of four operas from Smareglia's mature period and the cultural spheres that gradually revealed, by contrast, this substantial "non-italianità": in the youthful production (considered in its entirety) of the Scapigliatura movement, with the stance of Arrigo Boito; in the characteristics and the ideology of the sonzognana veristic opera, "Nozze istriane"; in the European symbolism mediated by Gabriele d'Annunzio in "La falena"; in the mediterranean myth formulated by Nietzsche and reformulated by d'Annunzio in "Oceàna"; and finally, in "Abisso", the most experimental and competitive nationalism of the composers of the next generation.