Abstract

Although opera has undoubtedly been an important point of reference for the silent film industry, it didn’t left a conspicuous amount of traces that could allow us today to carry out wide- ranging research. This paper aims to fill this gap trying to reconstruct the relationship between opera and the silent cinema in a particular country, such as Italy, where the culture of melodrama in the early twentieth century was not only widespread among the cultural élite but also familiar to a large section of the population. My contribution explores different items: the technological perspective; the involvement of the main Italian composers into the emerging movie industry; the role played by music publishers and film companies in order to reinforce integration between these media; finally the key role of the singer-actress. This last item is really significant. Indeed the character of singer- actress reaches on a profound symbolic meaning, and at same time reveals both the potentials and limitations of silent movie. Finally, I will show how the paradoxical status of “silent singer” is a very fructuous item to depict the identity of both silent cinema and opera in the well-known home of “bel canto.”