Starting from the analysis of what remains of the opera Petar Svačić, composed in 1902 in Trieste by Josip Mandić to a libretto by Karlo Lukež, the paper discusses the ideas of nationhood then current among young Croats, the survival of sublime pathos in the context of desublimation and the impact of political pragmatism both on the creation of the national opera and on its reception.
