Music and Nation: An ambiguous relationship

Melodrama popularity and the great spread of theatres - 1055 registered in the Seventies of the XIX century - give evidence of music and particularly opera industry developed in the united Italy. This article looks into the opera and Italian nation relations during the Risorgimento and into the choices carried out by the Italian state after 1861: choices keeping at a distance opera production, distribution and consumption left to the market in a liberalist logic, and neglecting music education, not included in primary school teaching until 1962. Tools and forms of later State intervention in opera industry after the market failure are considered, as well as many vital initiatives are reviewed that, in the present heavy budgetary constraints, guarantee at local and national level the production and enjoyment of musical performances.