Opera In Italy Research Articles

Traviata, Bohéme and the others: Exploring the drivers of demand for opera in Italy

This study investigates the main determinants of opera attendance in Italy over the period 2006-2018 using monthly data. To this purpose, a novel Unobserved Component Model that captures tastes and habits, in addition to the traditional demand drivers, is adopted. The results show that opera is a superior good, with an inelastic price and cross-price response. In addition, supply factors and education affect opera participation. Tastes, habits and other latent factors, encapsulated in the unobserved component, play a relevant role in driving opera demand. Strong seasonal effects characterise opera attendance and a declining growth participation over time is recorded.

Historical approach to the opera’s libretto-theme in Italy from the end of the 16th century to the first Italian reform

The creators of opera in Italy at the end of the 16th century gave great importance to the choice of their subject matter in order to reproduce an overall work of art according to the archetype of ancient Greek tragedy. During its progressive course, opera underwent changes, in which libretto and its subject matter constituted major issues of study and criticism and were reformed according to the style of each period but always with quality as a keystone. The present study examines the formation of the Italian opera based on the choice of the librettos from its birth to the first Italian reform.

‘The Destiny of a Whole Race’: Identity, Race, and Politics in the Cold War Italian Performances of ‘Porgy and Bess’

Abstract In 1954–5, Porgy and Bess appeared for the first time in Italy in an all-Black production formally endorsed by the US State Department. Italian theatre administrators saw this production as an opportunity to sever any ideological connection with Fascism after decades of institutional support. At the same time, while Italian audiences and critics were often aware of the essentializing practices at the origins of Porgy and Bess, they relied on the stereotypical image of African American culture presented by the show to project their own experiences and political aspirations onto the opera’s subject and music. Drawing on primary sources, interviews, and the analysis of the earlier European reception of Porgy and Bess, this article argues that the success of the opera in Italy, rather than being determined by US diplomatic efforts, was a result of Italians’ need to redefine a sense of collective identity in a time of political transition.

The specificity of interpreting the image of Vassili from the opera “Siberia” by Umberto Giordano

The specificity of interpreting the image of Vassili from the opera “Siberia” by Umberto Giordano

Occupational markers and pathology of the castrato singer Gaspare Pacchierotti (1740-1821).

Following the birth of modern opera in Italy in 1600, the demand for soprano voices grew up and the prepuberal castration was carried out to preserve the young male voice into adult life. Among the castrati, Gaspare Pacchierotti was probably one of the most famous. The remains of Pacchierotti were exhumed for the first time in 2013, for a research in the reconstruction of his biological profile, to understand the secrets behind his sublime voice and how the castration influenced the body. All the findings discovered, through anthropological and Computed Tomography analyses, are consistent both with the occupational markers of a singer and with the hormonal effects of castration. The erosion of cervical vertebrae, the insertion of respiratory muscles and muscles of the arms can be an effect of the bodily position and exercise during singing. The hormonal effect of castration were related to osteoporosis and to the disorders of spine.

Constructing an artistic field as a political project: Lessons from La Scala

This article revisits the “high culture model” of Paul DiMaggio by taking as its empirical reference the experience of opera in Italy—particularly the history of one of the foremost institutions of the operatic world, the theater La Scala, from the late 1700s through the early 1900s. Five aspects are discussed as relevant for an understanding of opera in Italy: the imprinting effect of the court system, the heritage of the Risorgimento (i.e., the historical period in which national unity was gained in the 1800s), the ascension of the middle classes and the making of a working class, the role of professionals acting as cultural entrepreneurs with international links and careers (especially that of Arturo Toscanini), and the influence of mass political parties and regimes. By arguing that the construction of an institutional field of opera should be framed also as a project of extension of political control over civil society promoted by parties (Socialists) and regimes (Fascism), this articles sheds new comparative light on classification in art while also contributing a sociological explanation for the apparently ambivalent status of opera (in Italy and possibly elsewhere) as a genre that is both highbrow and popular.

Opera in theory and practice, image and myth

This sixth volume in the series centres on the sociological and critical aspects of opera in Italy, considering the art in the context of an Italian literary and cultural canon rarely revealed in English and American studies.

TWO EARLY ROMANTIC OPERAS WITH IBERIAN ROOTS: "IL CONTE DI SALDAGNA" AND "INES DE CASTRO"

In the spring of 1787 La Scala in Milan produced a trail-blazing opera entitled 77 conte di Saldagna, which the libretto called a tragedia. Angelo Tarchi, maestro di cappella at La Scala, had composed the music, and the innovative Milanese librettist Ferdinando Moretti had provided the libretto, perhaps from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he had been in residence for a year.1 For carnival in Venice, 1793, Giuseppe Giordani composed yet another opera based on Iberian history, Ines de Castro, on a text by an anonymous librettist. In the second opera, an excellent example of the new style in opera seria of the 1790s, can be found many of the innovations pioneered in the first. A consideration of the two together reveals the dramatic change that took place in opera seria within a brief period of six years and pinpoints the beginnings of Romantic or revolutionary opera in Italy.2 // conte di Saldagna was revolutionary on many counts. It was the second opera within months to stage a murder, thus challenging venerable

Habit Formation and Dynamic Demand Functions

Most economists would agree that past consumption patterns are an important determinant of present consumption patterns, and that one ought to distinguish between long-run and short-run demand functions. But although the distinction between long-run and short-run behavior is traditional in the theory of the firm, it is seldom made in the theory of consumer behavior. If we regard demand theory as a theory of how a given amount of money (expenditure, called income) is allocated among goods, then-in a world without consumer durables-there are three reasons why longand shortrun demand functions might differ. (i) The consumer may have contractually fixed commitments which prevent him from adjusting some portion of his consumption (for example, housing) in response to changes in prices or income. When these fixed commitments lapse, he is able to adjust to his long-run equilibrium. (ii) The consumer may be ignorant of consumption possibilities or of his own tastes outside the range of his past consumption experience. In this case his adjustment to a new price-income situation will involve a time-consuming learning process. (iii) Finally, goods may be "habit forming" so that an individual's current preferences depend on his past consumption patterns. In this case a change in prices or income will cause a change-in consumption which will induce a change in tastes, which will cause a further change in consumption. In this paper I formulate a model of consumer behavior based on habit formation, beginning with a specific class of demand functions derived from the "modified Bergson family" of utility functions. The properties of these utility functions and the corresponding demand functions are briefly summarized in Section 1. I then postulate that the parameters

Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century