The Project of National Relevance (PRIN 2022 - 2022P749MT) is granted by the Italian Ministry of University within the framework of the Next Generation EU programme. It aims at renewing the methodologies and perspectives for investigating the performing arts through dialogue and interdisciplinary cooperation between Humanities (Theatre Studies, Musicology, and Aesthetics) and Social Sciences (Economics and Law) with the help of Informatics.
The focus is wide and covers tackles the development of the performing arts markets in Italy from Unification (1861) to the present days.
The research is based on the cooperation of four research unity based at the Universities of Bologna (coordinator), Genova, Palermo, and Roma La Sapienza. Each unit investigates broad case studies, including drama and opera in the Nineteenth Century through the lens of Adelaide Ristori and Giuseppe Verdi, the financing of theatre between the fascist 1930s and the rise of democracy, and the current framework for the funding of the performing arts in the country.
The project aims at filling in the existing gap of knowledge through the analysis of large and hitherto unexplored archival sources that have been produced by major theatrical entities, public institutions, and single individuals on State, regional, and local level over the last 150 years. This wide documentation is of theatrical, economical, juridical, and political nature, and it represents an uncharted reservoir of quantitative and qualitative data: if correctly elaborated and analysed, it is likely to achieve ground-breaking results in terms of the capacity of reading the historical evolution of the Italian theatrical system from the unification to nowadays, also providing anticipatory elements on the future perspectives of the performing arts in Italy.
The four case studies
CASE STUDY 1: APPLICABILITY OF THE "COST DISEASE THEORY" TO DRAMA: ADELAIDE RISTORI'S CASE
The Unit of GENOVA will deal with the actor-manager model of the nineteenth century and focus on the entrepreneurial strategies of the “Grande attrice” Adelaide Ristori, by means of the exploitation of her outstanding archive, preserved at Museo Biblioteca dell’Attore (MBA). The typology of Ristori’s troupe coincided with the general model of the Italian repertory company, even if she was an exceptional actress, active on international markets. Her peculiar case will therefore allow us to analyse fundamental and general issues. In particular, the core research question raised by the Unit of Genoa is about the applicability of the cost disease theory (Baumol-Bowen 1965 and 1966) to the specificity of drama.
CASE STUDY 2: BUSINESS AND AESTHETICS THROUGH THE COPYRIGHTS OF GIUSEPPE VERDI (1865-1882)
The Unit of PALERMO will investigate the relationship between the evolution of copyright legislation and opera production in nineteenth-Century Italy, focusing in particular on the case of Giuseppe Verdi. As outlined by pioneering studies (Rosselli 1985; Baia Curioni 2011), the Law n. 2337 of 25 June 1865 introduced copyright protection for the very first time in Italian history, thus marking both a discontinuity in the operatic production and a change in the aesthetichs, and the process came to a complete definition in 1882, with the approval of the second Copyright Law (n.1012 of 19 October) and the establishment of the Società Italiana degli Autori. The long-lasting economic and managing primacy of the theatrical impresario was replaced by the new protagonism of publishers and authors, who became the real dominors of the theatrical market and led to a definitive monumentalisation of opera and composers. This transition is key for understanding the history of Italian opera. However, its investigation has never reconstructed its complexity in full detail, with the support of primary sources and hard evidence. The Unit of Palermo will fill-in this gap through the extensive study of hitherto unexplored archival funds, shedding new light on the way copyright protection influenced the relationship among Teatro alla Scala, the publisher Ricordi, and Giuseppe Verdi.
CASE STUDY 3: THE CULTURAL POLICIES OF THE ITALIAN CENTRAL STATE (1935-1965)
The research activities fostered by the Unit of ROMA SAPIENZA aim at opening a new awareness about the evolution of policymaking in the creative industries in post-war Italy and the way it affected cultural and social dynamics with extensive tenure in the national history. The research group will study archival materials from 1935 to 1965. This demarcation enables the group to focus on continuity and discontinuity between fascist regime and republican governments concerning public intervention and cultural policies of creative industries. In 1935 the Ispettorato Generale del Teatro (transformed the following year into the Direzione Generale del Teatro, directed by Nicola De Pirro) was established, thus creating the archival fund and increasing subsidies on a regular basis for several years. The archival collection has been recently acquired by the Central State Archive, and the Unit is willing to shed light on this documentation for the very first time, classifying and indexing these uncharted materials.
CASTE STUDY 4: THE CONTEMPORARY PERFORMING ARTS POLICIES BETWEEN STATE INTERVENTION AND LOCAL AUTONOMIES (2001-2022)
The study of the contemporary performing arts market is developed by the Unit of BOLOGNA and it primarily aims at filling-in a gap of knowledge, with direct impact on the economic sphere. If in the last decades the Italian regulatory framework has undergone deep modifications in terms of positioning, financing, accessibility, and accountability requirements for the theatrical and musical enterprises, there are very few studies that have analysed the real effects of these measures through quantitative research (Paoletti 2022). In this regard, wide areas are still unexplored and need to be covered, notably the increasing prominence of banking foundations in the performing arts market and the behaviour of local authorities as the result of differential regionalism sanctioned by the 2001 Constitutional reform. The research is based on the reorganisation of extensive hard data produced by private entities and public institutions (including financial records and economic accounts, as well as regulamentary sources).
The four case studies will collect a considerable amount of quantitative data. Samples of these data will be delivered to the Unit of Rome Sapienza, which will proceed with machine-learning analysis to identify trends and tentative anticipatory projections.