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Your research was not limited to the operas of the 1700s.You also wrote about how, later in the course of history, Italians perceived and then described America and the Americans, for example through the western films of Sergio Leone. What can you tell us about this?
The idea stems from how America is constantly represented in Italian culture.The origins of these operas are in the XVII century, but in the films of Sergio Leone we find again the utopia of an unknown land where everything is possible, where you can even be beyond and against the law: then with a sword, now with a gun. Sergio Leone is fascinated by America because he grew up during the Fascist period, an era in which freedom was compromised and when America appeared to representa refreshing breath of liberty.
era in which freedom was compromised and when America appeared to represent a refreshing breath of liberty. But sometimes freedom is also dangerous, because every abuse can causeharm. For example, the gold rush in the West was real, but it was also highlyidealized and then brought misery to so many of those who participated. There is utopia but also dystopia, both in the rebel and outlaw characters of Sergio Leone as well as, for example, in the character of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, who is an irresponsible adventurer, or in the desperation of the gold diggers in California in La Fanciulla del West, also by Puccini.
Basically, over the course of time there is a constant theme in the representation of America in Italian culture: strong allusions to this new land, which are then made coherently explicit with the imagination of the Far West. The Italians who went to America could hardly imagine what America was actually like, but rather relied on an idea inherited from their culture, that for many decades had created several myths about America.
By Umberto Mucci