L'Opera a Luci Rosse: Seduzione E Sessualita Nel Melodramma del Secondo Ottocento

In the libretto of Rossini's Cinderella, one of the key passages was altered to safeguard a sense of modesty. Stendhal criticised the unforgivable replacement of the famous slipper with a bracelet, partially justifiable, in his opinion, only if the protagonist had a nice arm and an ugly foot. The protagonist, Geltrude Righetti Giorgi, reacted indignant promtly. Eighty years later, Musetta, in Boheme, carries out her seductive project towards Marcello by faking a pain in her foot due to a shoe that is too tight. The nude foot showed to the audiences in Paris and Turin. This is an exemple of changing sensitivity compared to the previously censored situations. After the libertinism of the previous century, the world of the 19th and 20th centuries is emblematic of the confrontation between sexuality and moral, social and political rules.