Not just a Fairy Tale: Parody, Late Fascism, and Ghedini’s ‘La pulce d’oro’ (1940)

At first glance, La pulce d’oro (1940), a one-act comic opera by Giorgio Federico Ghedini, might seem at odds with the turmoil of late-fascist Italy on the brink of war. A new opera in 1940 was itself anachronistic: a genre mired in unending crisis, resurfacing now at one of the darkest moments in the nation’s history. However, on closer inspection, La pulce d’oro demonstrates a peculiar timeliness and—in the tradition of Verdi’s Falstaff—offers pertinent insight into its contemporary and much overlooked moment. This article proposes a reading of the relevance of Ghedini’s opera through its twofold use of parody: as a musical technique and as an allegorical means, connecting past and present, fiction and reality, fairy tale and history. Encompassing some of the key cultural currents of the time—neoclassicism, magic realism, and social satire—La pulce d’oro’s parody unexpectedly brings together comic opera and fascism at a moment of cultural and political apotheosis.