Fascist Spectacle.pdf

Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v...
Italy. Images of tractors illustrated the beneficial effects of the Italian occupation, epitomizing the
arrival of technology. [138] Newsreels visually conveyed signs of Italy's recognized virtue. In Addis
Ababa roads and buildings suddenly appeared—markers of renewal that dignified the Ethiopian capital
of the new Italian empire. [139] At the same time, "enthusiastic" welcomings of the indigenous
populations took place during the visits of fascist dignitaries in the "liberated" lands. [140] This reality
proved once more that the regime had conducted "one of the most just wars that History
remembers." [141]
The Manichean vision of the world, the dramaturgy of virtue, and the emphasis on victimization
composed the referential structure within which fascism, through its leader, Mussolini, interpreted its
own actions and presented them to the people. As Peter Brooks writes: "At its most ambitious, the
melodramatic mode of conception and representation may appear to be the very process of reaching a
fundamental drama of the moral life and finding the terms to express it." [142] References to an
ongoing ethical struggle that pitched evil against a morally superior order, the representation of fascist
Italy as the virtuous victim, and the belief in the final triumph of justice constituted the main narrative
units the regime utilized to tell its tale of the Ethiopian conflict. [143] In the process of being woven
and plotted, these narrative elements also participated in the making of fascism's history. The regime's
refusal to abide by the League's rules, the Italians' struggle against the sanctions, and the submission
of the Ethiopians to fascist law, as a proof of Italy's higher value, marked the unfolding of events in
the Italo-Ethiopian
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dispute and determined their course. A melodramatic frame encapsulated the regime's deeds and
contained its warlike aims.
The rules of melodrama also governed Mussolini's acting style and diction. The Duce's public
appearances during the Ethiopian conquest were characterized by hyperbolic oratory and spectacular
excitement. Mussolini's grandiose phraseology and bombastic speeches highlighted a message of
virtue, and his presentations relied upon a peculiar repertoire of exaggerated, excessive facial
expressions and bodily postures—a range of performance signs that typically belong to melodramatic
acting. [144] Indeed, many of his contemporaries recognized in Mussolini theatrical qualities. Aldo
Garosci, recalling a live speech of Mussolini in Turin, reports his mother's disappointed conclusions: "a
Neapolitan actor." Although this comment in part shows the traditional antisouthern sentiment of
Italian northerners, it also highlights Mussolini's magnified expressiveness, which the Turin lady
identified with actors of southern provenance (although Mussolini was from the North). [145] Indeed,
the macroscopic character of Mussolini's mimicry often led to a depiction of the dictator as an "opera
star." [146] In a country whose popular culture was fully rooted in opera—one of the foremost
expressions of melodrama—the narrative construction of the Ethiopian conflict contained all elements
able to capture people's imagination. The African story, with its moral drama and its repertoire of
clichés, including bombastic solemnity, sentimentalism, and noble passions, appealed to what Antonio
Gramsci once called the Italians' "meldoramatic taste," their operatic conception of life. [147] If, as
many affirm, the time of the Ethiopian war witnessed the Italians' utmost support for the regime,
some of this support can be explained through reference to the narrative structure of the event.
Melodrama, in its operatic form, was very popular in Italy, and artistic production of operas was
quantitatively significant during the regime, both through films [148] and, more notably, through
mobile outdoor theaters, the carri di tespi . [149] These theaters, which could be assembled and
disassembled in less than an hour, were originally assigned the goal of bringing live performances to
areas lacking show halls. In 1929 the first carro teatrale , which like its successors displayed a fascio
littorio on its upper front, was inaugurated for theatrical representations. In 1930, a larger carro for
opera (carro lirico ) began touring the Italian peninsula with a repertoire that included Verdi, Puccini,
Rossini, Mascagni, and Bellini. The carro lirico drew much more popular success than the carro teatrale
; it performed forty-three shows in 1931, eighty-seven in 1932, and in the following years it offered
around eighty representations, only to slow down in 1936. [150] In general, the regime's cultural
politics favored lyric theaters, and it financed opera in several ways.
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The composer and director Pietro Mascagni, for example, was the largest beneficiary of the funds
administered by the Ministry of Popular Culture from 1933 to 1943. [151] In 1928, with the aim of
establishing a prestigious institution in Rome, the regime preferred opera to theater and created the
Teatro Reale dell'Opera. [152] In 1938, during the Italian Musical Summer (EMI) established by the
Ministry of Popular Culture, 392 operas were staged, against 52 theatrical shows. [153]
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