White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 13photostories, soap operas and televisionserials.The 19th-century middle-class attendedopera houses, transforming the prerevolutionarymusic academies intomeeting places for fashionable society.Recently composed operas were usuallystaged with entr’actes of dance andconjuring. In the foyer, the heads offamily played chemin-de-fer thus boostingthe finances of the impresario, whoseskill lay in bringing in singers popularwith audiences and introducing clevergambling ploys. Opera was the symbolichabitat of the 19th century bourgeoisand until the turn of the century itpassionately involved insiders andaudiences in the surprising evolution ofits musical and dramatic language(Verdi’s Falstaff and especially Puccini’sTurandot were the last productions of agenre which already looked to thefuture).But what has survived of thatatmosphere and those audiences? Nextto nothing. The passion for opera,although never completely extinguished,soon became mummified. While mostof our musicians and some foreigncomposers (Bizet, Wagner, Mozart anda few others) featured regularly in newproductions of by then historic titles,contemporary production slowed downconsiderably since it was no longerdriven by the guarantee of largeinterested audiences. The 20th-centurycomposers basically wrote for othermusicians and connoisseurs butcertainly not for the wider public. Thuswhile cinema was providing an effectiveresponse to the demand for sharedentertainment, opera was increasinglyseen as a high-society ritual for itsaudiences which, despite all the greatconductors and performers, seemedmore interested in the divas’ love storiesand rivalries, on one hand, and themusical orthopaedics of hitting the topnotes, on the other.Table 13.1 – Demand for opera in Italy (2000-2006)Year Performances Admissions Proceeds2000 2,482 1,594,074 62,640,195.822001 2,882 1,477,486 70,410,309.492002 3,198 1,582,015 78,302,263.272003 3,205 1,329,914 70,274,077.612004 2,695 1,336,076 78,195,502.172005 2,760 1,942,834 85,825,135.362006 2,361 1,963,614 85,290,125.01Table 13.1 shows a fairly modestsituation, especially considering that thecolumn of the admissions does not referto the number of theatre-goers but thenumber of tickets sold. And if weconsider that audiences are partly madeup of regular opera-goers, then thenumber of individuals effectivelyinvolved in the consumption of opera isWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 299