For some cases of ninteenth-century Italy and France, see for example Carlotta Sorba, ‘ Ernani Hats: Italian Opera as a Repertoire of Political Symbols during the Risorgimento’, in The Oxford Handbook of the New Cultural History of Music, ed. In this way, I cast light on a heretofore overlooked, but undeniably rich, period of operatic life in Buenos Aires.ħ In relation to opera as a political vehicle in different times and contexts see the catalogue of the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Kate Bailey, ed., Opera: Passion, Power and Politics (London: V&A Publishing, 2007) and John Bokina, Opera and Politics: From Monteverdi to Henze (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997). 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 18 in the periodicals of the time.
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. It was followed by another shocking event when, once the couple was found, Rosas decided to have them executed. 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. The success of the opera combined with the political situation enables the understanding of Norma in political terms.
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’. On Vincenzo Bellini's opera Norma was premiered at the Teatro de la Victoria in Buenos Aires.
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