Editing Operetta (section)

=== Reception and controversy ===
The audiences of operetta during the 1860s and 1870s are described as rowdy and loud.<ref name=":6" /> Operetta was considered one of the major controversies about Italian music and culture between the 1860s and the 1920s.<ref name=":6" /> During that period, strong nationalistic undertones in Italy strived to unify its national identity. Recognizing operetta as a foreign genre, operetta was perceived as an art form that would contaminate Italian opera or illegitimately undermine its primacy on the stage.<ref name=":6" /> It was not until the early twentieth century that Italian composers systematically engaged in writing operetta.