National Opera in the Periphery: Economy, Aesthetics and the Paradox of Modernity in R.M. Azkue’s Basque Operas

Abstract This article explores the economic and aesthetic dimensions of Resurrección María de Azkue’s (1864–1951) Basque operas, focusing on the tension between artistic ambition and financial constraints in the early twentieth-century Basque Country. Drawing on the example of the operas Ortzuri (1911) and Urlo (1914), this article explores how industrialisation and bourgeois interests influenced the definition of Basque opera. It also assesses the viability of this project by analysing its internal infrastructure, including the theatre landscape and repertoire, while underscoring the role of critics in shaping aesthetic norms for composers. By integrating both local and transnational perspectives, this article situates Azkue’s Basque operas within a broader context, relating it to contrasting models of modernity represented by Italian opera and Wagnerism, and demonstrating how peripheral regionalist and nationalist movements navigated these trends to try to assert a position of centrality.