Opera as a Moral Vehicle: Situating Bellini's Norma in the Political Complexities of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Vera Wolkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Moral Lesson ◽  
Shocking Event

Abstract On 25 May 1849 Vincenzo Bellini's opera Norma was premiered at the Teatro de la Victoria in Buenos Aires. It was performed four years before the downfall of Juan Manuel de Rosas, Governor of Buenos Aires for more than 20 years, in what it has been considered in Argentine historiography as a ‘terror regime’. The success of the opera combined with the political situation enables the understanding of Norma in political terms. A year prior to the premiere of the opera, the story of the elopement of a young, aristocratic, federal girl, Camila O'Gorman with the priest Uladislao Gutiérrez, had shocked local society. It was followed by another shocking event when, once the couple was found, Rosas decided to have them executed. I argue that the inadvertent similarity between the plot of Norma and the events in relation to Camila O'Gorman's death led to possible interpretations of the opera performance as a justification of Rosas's decision to execute Camila and her lover, whilst also providing a moral lesson to young aristocratic women. In this article, I therefore explore the plausible political overtones hidden in the performance of Norma by comparing librettos and analysing the opera's reception between 1849 and 1851 in the periodicals of the time. In this way, I cast light on a heretofore overlooked, but undeniably rich, period of operatic life in Buenos Aires.

CIVILIZING HAWAII: ISABELLA BIRD BISHOP IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-370
Author(s):  
Precious McKenzie Stearns
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
American Missionaries ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
China And Japan

Nineteenth-century male European travel writers sometimes romanticize their destinations and dream they have arrived in untouched lands. The Hawaii Isabella Bird visited, however, was not an idyllic land, forgotten by time. Early in the nineteenth century, steamships crossed the Pacific, carrying goods and people from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Japan. The trade in sandalwood and fur brought many foreign steamships into Hawaii (Kuykendall 15). It was not uncommon for American missionaries to arrive in Hawaii via whaling ships that stopped in Hawaii (Kuykendall 16, 41). Hawaii, with its position between mainland America and Asia, was a valuable and strategic piece of property. Isabella Bird Bishop's 1875 travel memoir The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands comments on the political situation the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) faced in the nineteenth century.

History, the Peasantry, and the Polish Nation in the Thought of Michal Bobrzyński

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Pajakowski
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
National Community ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Face

The most important historical works of today are those that take the past of a single nation and state as their subject, for the nation and the state are the highest natural, independently developing organism that humanity has yet achieved.Like most nineteenth-century historians, Michal Bobrzyński directed his research to the study of his nation's past and especially to the development of political institutions. History, for him, served to enhance a sense of nationhood among his readers by deriving lessons from the experience of the national community and providing a basis for present political activity. As a politically engaged historian, Bobrzyński faced serious issues of the need to reorient Polish national identity and to refashion the historical imagination to meet the needs of his people in the face of the political situation in the last three decades of the nineteenth century.

Trade, Islam, and the Mahdia in Northwestern Wallaggā Ethiopia

1975 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Triulzi
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Favourable Attitude ◽  
Commercial Potential ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
Western Ethiopia ◽  
Made In

The district of Belā Shangul, in the northwestern corner of the present Governorate-General of Wallaggā, Ethiopia, has played a crucial role in the introduction of Islam in western Ethiopia. The present paper attempts to show how the commercial potential of Belā Shangul was the reason for the peaceful penetration of Islam in the region in the nineteenth century, thus creating the basis for the ready acceptance of the Mahdia by the Islamized ruling families of the region later. It is due to the considerable inroads that Islam had made in the region that the first Mahdist envoys were welcomed there, and that they could operate freely from 1882 onwards.The paper further discusses the importance of Mahdist presence in the region, its impact on local society, and its attempts to penetrate the Oromo countries south and east of Belā Shangul. It argues that Mahdist rule over the region was effective until about 1890, and that the favourable attitude shown towards the Mahdia by the region's ruling families became more hostile mainly because of the harsh rule established in Belā Shangul by the Mahdist commander, Khalīl al-Khuzāni, and of the new militant Islam he introduced in the region. Khalīl's campaign of 1886 and Mahdist raids in 1888–90 further alienated the local rulers, who rebelled under the leadership of ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān of Belā Shangul proper. The reported cession of this district by the Khalifa to Menilek of Ethiopia must be seen in the political context of the time: the border district had become too burdensome for Omdurman to rule, yet its commercial and mineral resources made it too valuable to remain a no man's land.

The Russian Empire’s Changing Views of the Caucasus (1801–1864)

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-162
Author(s):  
Mikail Mamedov
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crimean War ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Almost All

The Russian empire annexed Georgia and moved further into the Caucasus for reasons that were typical for the period; that is, the European idea of a civilizing mission. Later, toward the mid-1820s, Russia attempted to use the region as its colony. The Russian advance towards the borders of Iran and Turkey alarmed the British and aggravated Russia’s relations with the European powers. Meanwhile, Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War gave rise to the idea of the Caucasus as a bulwark against a hostile Europe. None of the previous ideas disappeared completely: they co-existed during almost all of the nineteenth century. Thus, the image of the Caucasus in the Russian imperial consciousness was dynamic and flexible, reflecting Russia’s changing history, the political situation in the empire, and threats to the country from outside.

Ein Ende mit Schrecken – Frankreich nach den Wahlen

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (188) ◽  
pp. 495-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Syrovatka
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Deep Crisis

The presidential and parliamentary elections were a political earthquake for the French political system. While the two big parties experienced massive losses of political support, the rise of new political formations took place. Emmanuel Macron is not only the youngest president of the V. Republic so far, he is also the first president not to be supported by either one of the two biggest parties. This article argues that the election results are an expression of a deep crisis of representation in France that is rooted in the economic transformations of the 1970s. The article analyses the political situation after the elections and tries to give an outlook on further political developments in France.

Capital californiano, necesidad presupuestal y cambio político: Juan Temple y el arrendamiento de la Casa de Moneda de México, 1827–1857

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-351
Author(s):  
Omar Velasco Herrera
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Siglo Xix ◽  
The Government

Durante la primera mitad del siglo xix, las necesidades presupuestales del erario mexicano obligaron al gobierno a recurrir al endeudamiento y al arrendamiento de algunas de las casas de moneda más importantes del país. Este artículo examina las condiciones políticas y económicas que hicieron posible el relevo del capital británico por el estadounidense—en estricto sentido, californiano—como arrendatario de la Casa de Moneda de México en 1857. Asimismo, explora el desarrollo empresarial de Juan Temple para explicar la coyuntura política que hizo posible su llegada, y la de sus descendientes, a la administración de la ceca de la capital mexicana. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the budgetary needs of the Mexican treasury forced the government to resort to borrowing and leasing some of the most important mints in the country. This article examines the political and economic conditions that allowed for the replacement of British capital by United States capital—specifically, Californian—as the lessee of the Mexican National Mint in 1857. It also explores the development of Juan Temple’s entrepreneurship to explain the political circumstances that facilitated his admission, and that of his descendants, into the administration of the National Mint in Mexico City.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn Apropos of Russia’s Future: Specific Outlook Features Depending on Different Historical Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 327-334
Author(s):  
Inga V. Zheltikova ◽  
Elena I. Khokhlova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Future ◽  
Pessimistic Attitude ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Images Of The Future ◽  
The Church

The article considers the dependence of the images of future on the socio-cultural context of their formation. Comparison of the images of the future found in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works of various years reveals his generally pessimistic attitude to the future in the situation of social stability and moderate optimism in times of society destabilization. At the same time, the author's images of the future both in the seventies and the nineties of the last century demonstrate the mismatch of social expectations and reality that was generally typical for the images of the future. According to the authors of the present article, Solzhenitsyn’s ideas that the revival of spirituality could serve as the basis for the development of economy, that the influence of the Church on the process of socio-economic development would grow, and that the political situation strongly depends on the personal qualities of the leader, are unjustified. Nevertheless, such ideas are still present in many images of the future of Russia, including contemporary ones.

ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ БЕСПРЕДЕЛ ОППОЗИЦИИ И ПОЧЕМУ ВЫИГРАЛ ВЫБОРЫ АШРАФ ГАНИ?

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-67
Author(s):  
Мохаммад Исаак Шафак
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Expert Assessment ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Personal Qualities

Аннотация: В данной статье автор исследовал феномен победы действующего президента Мохаммада Аршаф Гани, выигравшего во второй раз президентские выборы у своих оппонентов, его персональные качества в отличие от его оппонентов, проигравших выборы на пример Абдуллы Абдуллы. Названы глубинные причины возникновения политического кризиса, как недоговороспособность политических элит Афганистана, разрозненных личными и местечковыми интересами своих кланов. Сделан анализ, почему годами оставаясь у власти, оппоненты Ашрафа Гани, не использовали свои властные полномочия не улучшили политическую ситуацию Афганистана. Автором приведены аналитические выводы их отрицательного влияния на развитие политических процессов, это связано большей частью для сохранения собственных корыстных интересов и благ. Автор на примере анализа деятельности президента и его оппонентов на выборах, выразил собственное экспертную оценку вокруг сложившийся политической ситуации вновь избранного действующего президента Ашрафа Гани Ахмадзая, как политической персоны, выделив его слабые и сильные стороны и оппонентов. Ключевые слова: феномен победы, политический кризис, выборы. Аннотация: Автордун бул илимий макаласында, Мохаммад Ашраф Ганидин экинчи мөөнөткө 2019 -жылы 28-сентябрда болуп өткөн президенттик шайлоодо атаандаштарын утушу, Абдулла Абдулла жана да башка оппонентеринин президенттик шайлоодогу жеке сапаттарын изилдеген. Ооган саясий элитасынын ар түрдүү жеке жана ичи тардык, кызгануу сыяктуу эле кызыкчылыктарын, саясий башаламандык кыймылы жөнүндө жана ошол себептер менен саясий кризис курчуунун негизги себептерин атады. Алардын (эски элитанын) бийликте калуу максатында кыймылдарынын терс таасири тууралуу аналитикалык корутунду көрсөттү, бул инсандар негизинен өздөрүнүн жеке керт башынын кызыкчылыктары менен пайдасын сактоо менен байланыштуу, шайлоодо президенттин иш-аракеттери жана оппоненттери боюнча сереп-талдоо жазылган. Ооганстандагы саясый кырдаал жакшырган жок, саясий жараяндар таатал боюнча калууда, Ашраф Гани менен оппоненттеринин күчтүү жактарын жана кемчиликтери касиеттери жөнүндө, учурдагы Ооганстанда саясий кырдаал тууралуу өзүнүн серебин билдирди. Түйүндүү сөздөр: жеңүүнүн феномени, саясий кризис, шайлоо Annotation: In this article, the author explored the phenomenon of victory of incumbent President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, who won the second time the presidential election against his opponents, his personal qualities, unlike his opponents, who lost theelection by the example of Abdullah Abdullah. The underlying causes of the political crisis are identified as the lack of maturity of the political elites of Afghanistan, fragmented by the personal and local interests of their clans. An analysis is made of why staying in power for years, opponents of Ashraf Ghani, did not use their power, did not improve the political situation in Afghanistan, the author gives analytical conclusions of their negative impact on the development of political processes, this is mainly due to preserving their own selfish interests and benefits. The author, using an example of analysis of the activities of the president and his opponents in the elections, expressed his own expert assessment around the current political situation of the newly elected incumbent president Ashraf Gani Ahmadzai as a political person, highlighting his weaknesses and strengths and opponents. Keywords: the phenomenon of victory, political crisis, elections.

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