Opera is a musical, artistic and social phenomenon that has throughout history (through rituals and ceremonies) legitimized all kinds of power and authority of the state or any other form of political formation or. social organizations. Opera has witnessed wars, revolutions, totalitarian political regimes, global social changes and yet as a musical-artistic form (imbued with socio-political subjects) it has survived and (yet, imbued with socio-political subjects, it has survived as a musical form). During the French Revolution of 1789, the opera house was seen as a place with aristocratic principles and values. Therefore it was reformed in the image of a developing democratic state. Nonetheless the aristocratic "aura of wealth" was revived after the revolution by the new and flourishing bourgeoisie of the 19th-century, whose goal was to imitate the nobility (but not to replace it). The members of this newly established social class wanted to create a lavish aristocratic world, but with their own (bourgeois) moral principles and rules. The world of opera was being redefined in relation to the new middle-class audience and the commercial world that it was associated with. But on the other hand it was also seen as an artistic and cultural product for the intellectual pleasure of “cultural” urban elites. At the same time, the opera/the opera house became a social tool of the middle classes who used it to consolidate their place in society, by making new acquaintances during opera performances, showing their social status through their appearance and gestures, discussing current socio-political topics and events. In relation to the latter, as tendencies for national identities emerged across the European continent, the 19th-century opera house also became an arena for the legitimation of national and emancipatory political messages. Throughout Europe, it has become a symbol of the nation, and in some states even synonymous with the nation itself. The opera world had a role of affirmating the political reality, social messages and ideological missions of these “newly awakened” nations, ethnic minorities and emerging social classes.
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