For a long time Croatian history of literature and culture considered all forms of manifestations in the Italian language as acts aiming at the loss of national identity. Consequently, century-old presence of Italian performances on our coast (from the end of 18th century to the end of 19th century) has been neglected by the Croatian scholars, since they considered that cultural phenomenon as part of a foreign intellectual influence. The truth is that negative consequences those manifestations sometimes had cannot be belittled as contributing to the loss of national identity of the autochtonous inhabitants under the Austrian rule. However, in recent times, especially in the surveys of the theatrical life on the Croatian coastal cities some indisputable values of the cultural phenomenon have been pointed out. The author does not aim giving a complete picture of those events, because it would require a long research. All he wants to do is it illustrate, first of all using the data about the Plemićko kazalište (Noble Theatre) 1783-1871, those cultural complexes that were developed in the Croatian coastal cities under the influence of the Italian theatre itself. Of special importance, in the author's opinion, are: erection of modern theatre buildings according to the European standards, establishing and organization of theatrical institutions, educating theatre audiences and developing the taste for the theatre, the beginning and the advelopment of theatre criticism, encouragement for native authors to write dramatic and compose musical works, etc. A large number of performances of theatrical and opera works of the European repertoire of that time were made accessible to the theatre public. The author concludes that the complex set of problems and inadequate attention paid to that field requires a complete and systematic research and a modem and objective evaluation.
