Archivarius - Saggi a cura di/Essays by Luca Logi (llogi@dada.it)
OPERA HOUSES IN ITALY
A Panorama
There are several opera houses at present in Italy, working on a two-tier system.
The major circuit are the thirteen biggest houses, that are:
and the Accademia di S. Cecilia in Roma, doing symphonic work, but regulated as an opera house.
These major house have a round-the year calendar and live out of public money, draining the biggest part of public funds reserved to classical music (Fondo unico dello Spettacolo).
Thet all mantain full time orchestras and choruses, as well as technical (exception made in this for S. Cecilia) and administrative department. Some of them (Milano, Roma Opera, Firenze, Verona, Napoli) also have a ballet company.
Their main income comes from public funds, as the ticket counter usually covers for 10% to 30% of expenses. The main expenses for every house is personnell (usually in the 70% range of expenses).
All these opera houses are at present (2000) changing their structure from being a public body to being a private body (foundation) with heavy partecipation of local (municipal and regional) authorities and, if possible, private sponsor. As there some new tax deductions for private sponsor, but they are simple not enough to attract the majority of them, only future will tell if this change is substancial, cosmetic, or just a preliminary to closing some of these houses.
The second tier of houses are the so called 'Teatri di tradizione', which have a shorter season and do not mantain full time artistic personal. Some of them:
Also all the houses live on the traditional 'Italian season' system (opposed to the German-originated 'repertoire' system): that is, every year only few titles are presented; all titles are extensively reharsed and then follows a run of performances; then follows the next title. Only as an exception you will find two or three different operas in following days (and this could be quite inconvenient to the foreign tourist).
This system should give an higher overall quality than the 'repertoire' system (that is, every day a different opera); as there are not so many performances, also it is a little cheaper to mantain. The main disadvantages are that theaters are closed for reharsals - no performances - a lot of time; and also there is a lot of time (several years) between productions of the same title.
There are considerable differences between opera houses both in financing and in artistic quality (the two are not always correlated).
The Teatro alla Scala in Milano is the richest one; they have a large public funds endowement and - being just in the mid of Italy's richest region - they have little difficulty in attracting local sponsor. So they can afford the best singers and have a large production budget.
They also have the privilege of having Riccardo Muti as principal conductor, and Muti is very much willing to spend his time at La Scala. On the other side, there is often a difference in level between Muti and non-Muti production.
The La Scala orchestra has set a precedent working - on rest days - as a philarmonic orchestra, very much copying the Wiener Philarmoniker (who are the orchestra of Wiener Staatsoper with another name and another administration). At present this is more an advantage to orchestra players (who can double their income) than for the general public, as the concerts are few and far between. The artistic level, however, is quite high.
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma comes second in public funds endowements, as they were once intended to be a showroom for Italian government's guests. They were only rarely able to perform this function in the last decades (the more famous case being when Callas broke in the mid of a 'Norma' performance just in front of the Italian president), and they usually have been a mess of politics, trade union question, scandals, huge expenses, casual programming, with very little space allowed to music and opera. Their are at present trying to get better, but the heritage is quite heavy. The present superintendant (aptly named Ernani) is considered an expert in opera administration, but has begun his term with a bloody row resulting in the removal of Giuseppe Sinopoli as principal conductor (a role Sinopoli had only for some months).
The Teatro Comunale di Firenze/Maggio Musicale Fiorentino comes third in public funds endowements - and quite distant from Milano and Roma.
Their first problem is their name: as Maggio Musicale they do a festival in May/June, and the rest of the year they work as Teatro Comunale, but really there is not so much difference beetween the different seasons.
Quality is good (as much as the budget allows) and the house is traditionally committed to experimental works - discovering forgotten operas or doing traditional ones in experimental production. Given the limited number of titles and the space reserved to purely symphonic seasons, this means there is a lot of time (sometimes decades) between productions of traditional titles like Rigoletto and Traviata.
They host quite good conductors: Mehta, Chung, Bychkov, but it looks like no one of them feels Firenze as his true own home.
Arena di Verona has no economic problems, as during the August season they can sell more ticket than a major football team; by the way, a lot of tickets are sold to Germans who love the combination of Italian melody with Italian sun on the near Garda lake (which has become Gardasee). During the year they perform in the little Teatro Filarmonico.
The Arena being such a large and open space, you should not choose to attend their performance on purely musical grounds, as the music is only a part - sometimes the lesser part - of their production.
La Fenice in Venezia - which was the theatre Verdi himself preferred - is no more due to a disastrous fire. Nobody can tell when it will be rebuilt (it is said that works will be over by 2002 or so, but it is up to you to believe this); there is very much will to have a new Fenice like the old one, but given the amount of Italian burocratic regulations this will be a nightmare.
In the meantime they all perform in a big tent, like an operatic circus. To tell all the truth, even before the fire they were somewhat a sleepy theatre...
Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova has just been rebuilt after a bombing in II World War. Now they have the most modern Italian theatre, but they are just discovering they have not enough funds to fully use it.
Teatro Regio in Torino is very much on the same level. They have a large and modern house, with all the necessary structures and very functional even if not so beautiful to see. But the human resources are on the level of a small house.
The main difference from Genova is that Torino is home of the powerful FIAT industrial complex, with the Agnelli family (owners of FIAT) acting very much like a modern form of princes. There is also the RAI symphony orchestra, and the overall cultural level of the city is high.
Teatro di S.Carlo in Napoli has a wonderful tradition, and till about forty years ago it was very much on the same level with La Scala. The problem here was organization, and it has slowly become very much like Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, with a lot of problems and not so much stress given to actual opera performance; in this following the whole city, once an important capital of culture, and now host to major social problems. We just hope for the future.
Teatro Massimo di Palermo is going to be open again after decades long rebuilding, during which operas were performed in Politeama Garibaldi. We should stress that, having access to important regional funds, they are always trying to work as much as possible, and there is no shortage of opera performance and music in Palermo.
Teatro Verdi in Trieste is again in the middle level rank. They are a small opera house, doing their best. They are home to a yearly operetta festival - in Trieste the Austro-Hungarian heritage is still strong.
Teatro Comunale di Bologna is again on the small-medium size, but they were always well run - the city itself is very well organized. They have done a lot of work with Chailly in the near past.
Ente Autonomo Pierluigi da Palestrina in Cagliari is very much the Cinderella. of Italian opera houses. They do as much as they can - as Sardinia, as an island, is quite periferic.
The Accademia di S. Cecilia in Roma has a very good symphony orchestra and choir. They are considered - on administrative grounds - as an opera house, but they are not. They have very good conductors in their seasons, and sometimes also try an opera in concert form.
Being quite near to the Vatican (they play in a Vatican hall, but they hope they have their own auditorium completed by year 2000) they have an important connection lacking to all opera houses. Their new principal conductor, Myung Whun Chung, hopes to increase this relationship.
All judgements are personal opinion of the author.
Aggiornata al 7 gennaio 2001 - Last updated Jan.7th, 2001