Recensione a Francesco Izzo, Laughter between Two Revolutions.: "Opera buffa" in Italy, 1831-1848

Abstract

The reviewed monograph crowns a multi-year research path conductedby Francesco Izzo in an area so far rarely frequented by the musicological community: the Italian comic opera of the 30s and 40s of the nineteenth century. Senior lecturerat the University of Southampton, co-director of the American Institute for Verdi Studies and general editor of the critical edition project of Verdi's operas (in which he prepares Un Giorno di Regno), Izzo has dedicated his doctoral dissertation (discussed in 2003 at New York University) and some articles appeared in proceedings ofinternational conferences and journals: the study in question resumes and re-elaborates these publications to present «the first substantial assessment of Italian comic operas composed during the central years of the Risorgimento ».