Italians and music. Financescape, ideoscape and mediascape

Abstract

This article explores the reasons why Italian contemporary musical life is generally considered to be below the standards set by other European and overseas countries, a situation that is all the more striking when the contrast with Italy's glorious musical tradition in past centuries is born in mind. The failings of public institutions and the inadequacies of policies have often been blamed for this, but in fact the causes are more complex. Arjun Appadurai's terminology that is cited in the title and the subsections of the article that are organized around the themes of ‘financescape’, ‘ideoscape’ and ‘mediascape’ provide the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the complex factors playing a role in the Italian music scene. In terms of structure and organization that greatest problems lay in the production system of the Opera theatres, in the progressive fall in public funds for the performing arts and in a visibly shrinking music market. These factors have created a crisis, but they have deep roots in Italian culture, one symptom being the relatively small demand for music in Italy. These different factors have combined to create a situation of immobility and conservatism that in turn weighs heavily on both serious and pop music.

Keywords:

• Opera houses
• musical life
• publicly funded music
• music teaching
• audio markets

Notes

1 For the concepts of financescape, ideoscape, mediascape, technoscape, and ethnoscape, see Appadurai (1996).

2 See www.cematitalia.it/cemat/infocemat/fus/protestafus.htm (accessed 30 June 2006).

3 As an example of this distinct heterogeneity, see the study commissioned by the European Commission and by the Ministries of Culture of Spain and France (1997). For the area of music, the best study in the vast comparative survey between systems of demand and supply in various European countries found in Trezzini and Curtolo (1987).

4 Even the European Union has become active in this field. First the Council of Ministers and later the European Commission established working groups, the first of which was the LeG Culture (Leadership Group on Cultural Statistics), which was tasked with developing methodologies for harmonizing cultural statistics on a community-wide scale. See LeG Culture (2001, 2002), Task Force on and Finance (2001), and Gazzelloni (2000). Among the other Europe-wide initiatives, we should point out the website Cultural Policies in Europe, ‘an expanding Europe-wide information system on cultural policy measures, instruments, debates and trends’ (Council of Europe – ERICarts, 2002). Specifically focusing on music is the European Music Office (EMO), ‘an international non-profit association bringing together professional organizations, associations and federations from the music sector within the European Union’[www.musicineurope.org/ accessed 30 June 2006]. See Laing and Rutten (1996).

5 The transformation was begun by the legislative decree no. 367 dated 26 June 1996, which was later followed by many other measures, necessitated by the problems and delays encountered by the Enti Lirici (Autonomous Opera Houses) in complying with the new legal norms.

6 See Carlo Fontana's ‘Introduzione’ to ANELS (1992: XI). Carlo Fontana was general manager of the Teatro alla Scala from 1990 to 2005.

7 See Cesare Romiti's ‘Prefazione’ to ANELS (1992: XV). Cesare Romiti was the managing director of the Fiat Corporation from 1976 until 1996, when he was appointed president of the corporation, an office he held until 1998.

8 See Cappelletto (1995: 13); the table is based on statistics from the Associazione per l'Economia della Cultura (Association for the Economics of Culture).

9 In this connection, we should mention the contents of ‘Unmanageable opera’, a Ph.D. thesis presented in 2000 at the City University of London, devoted to a comparative study of the management of five different European opera houses: ‘The aim was to select a set of organisations that would represent the main areas of operatic activity. … The organisations included represent these areas, with the exception of Italy due to the withdrawal of the Teatro alla Scala’ (Auvinen 2000: 62). Recently, a prominent Italian musical monthly that had planned to carry out an investigation on relations between opera singers, management agencies, and opera houses was obliged to abandon the project, because it could not find anyone willing to work on the subject.

10 In this connection, the reader should compare the data in Tables 2 and 3. In 1990, 1991, and 1992 the 13 Italian Enti Lirici spent an average of 96, 96.1, and 95.7 per cent of their total personnel spending on permanent employees (not including visiting artists). In 1997 at the Finnish Opera, out of 583 employees, only 451 (77.3 per cent) were permanent employees. At the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, in 1998, 91.2 per cent of employees were permanent. There was quite a different situation at the Paris Opéra, which has no permanent artistic staff. There, in 1998, only 21.4 per cent of the nearly 1,400 employees had open-ended employment contracts.

11 The chart is based on box office figures taken from the websites of twenty-four Italian and European opera houses.

12 A number of the historic opera houses of the great European capitals, and likewise the major opera festivals, put very high prices on the best seats: for instance, Covent Garden (London), £155.00; Bayreuth Festival, [euro]183.00; Salzburg Festival, [euro]340.00; Ferrara Music Festival, [euro]250.00 (prices refer to 2002 – 2003). Nonetheless, nearly all the opera houses and festivals in Europe present sharp differences between the various price levels, offering truly affordable admission prices, which are also generally lower than the lowest prices of the Italian opera houses. For the 2004 – 2005 season at the Teatro alla Scala, the prices range from [euro]170.00 to [euro]10.00 for standing room. At the Wiener Staatsoper, the top price for a seat is [euro]178.00, but standing room costs [euro]2.00, one-fifth the cost at La Scala. Also, there are opera houses that stage gala opening evenings at much higher prices than the actual first nights. For the inaugural party at the Metropolitan in New York, September 2004, prices went as high as US$1,000.00; for the inaugural gala at the San Carlo in Naples – December 2004 – the highest price was [euro]200.00 as against the [euro]120.00 of first nights. The most startling case is the traditional inauguration of the opera season at La Scala, which is held every year on 7 December. In 2002 and 2003, at the Arcimboldi, because the historic site of the Piermarini was closed for renovation, the prices ranged from [euro]1,000.00 to [euro]30.00. For the reopening of the renovated opera house, on 7 December 2004, the prices ranged from [euro]2,000.00 to [euro]700.00 for preferred or box seats and from [euro]350.00 to [euro]50.00 for a balcony seat.

13 The share subsidized by the state, which was 56.3 per cent in 1990 dropped gradually to 50 per cent in 2000. See Cicerchia (1999), Leon (2004) and European Commission and Ministries of Culture of Spain and France (1997).

14 Data taken from Council of Europe – ERICarts (2002); European Commission and Ministries of Culture of Spain and France (1997); Cicerchia (1999); ‘Bulletin de la Direction de l'action stratégique, de la recherche et de la statistique du Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec’, 2 October 1999 [http://mcc.quebectel.qc.ca/]. The Euro went into effect as the sole European currency on 1 January 1999, and actually went into circulation three years later, on 1 January 2002. Nonetheless, frequently the sources used make use of statistics expressed in Euros for periods prior to the entry into circulation of the new currency. Those sums are probably based upon the equivalency of the Euro and the ECU, the European Community accounting unit that was adopted beginning in 1979 by countries belonging to the European Monetary System. As for the Italian currency, the value of the Euro, upon its establishment in 1999, was established at Lire 1,936.27. As for the conversion of various currencies into Lire, see note 12.

15 For Germany, estimates clash. The data shown in Table 8 are taken from the statistical surveys published in Jahrbuch für Kulturpolitik (Söndermann, 2000, 2002/03). They differ sharply from the data of the ‘Kulturfinanzbericht 2000’ (Statistisches Bundesamt 2001), according to which in 2002 spending on culture was [euro]6.3 billion, with per capita spending of just [euro]76.69 (see Council of Europe – ERICarts (2002)).

16 The percentages of funding for the performing arts as against overall cultural funding reported in the Task Force on Cultural Expenditure and Finance (2001), are different from those reported in Council of Europe – ERICarts (2002) (see Table 8): Austria (1999) 32.7 per cent; France (1996) 25.7 per cent; Germany (1998) 39.2 per cent; Italy (1995) 15.5 per cent. This disagreement however does nothing more than to confirm the fact that in Italy the share allocated to this sector is far smaller than in other countries.

17 For music, the percentage shares of the FUS in 2004 are as follows: Enti Lirici 47.8 per cent; musical activity 14.07 per cent; dance activity 1.74 per cent. In 2004 this meant: [euro]239 million for the Enti Lirici; [euro]170.3 million for other musical activities; [euro]8.7 million for dance.

18 Beginning in October of 2003 the Enti Lirici– now called Fondazioni (Foundations) – grew to fourteen in number with the addition of the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, now being rebuilt, following its destruction in a devastating fire in 1991. Another opera house that was recently rebuilt, after the 1996 fire that almost completely destroyed it, is La Fenice in Venice.

19 See Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (2005: 15). For the years following 2004, the reductions were even more expansive, triggering widespread protests in the sector in response to the massive and threatening cuts. In 2005 the FUS dropped to about [euro]464 million. For 2006, after the government was forced to back down on the decision to reduce it to [euro]300 million, the sum should be about [euro]400 million, with a real value of about half of what it was in 1985.

20 Law of 21 November 2000, no. 342. This is a partial law, which does not call for the deduction of contributions made by a private individual.

21 See Imprenditori e mecenati (unsigned article), Corriere del Giorno, 18 August 2004, available at http://www.patrimoniosos.it/rsol.php?op=getarticle&id=7055 (accessed 30 June 2006).

22 See AAFRC (American Association of Fundraising Counsel) (2004), Giving USA 2004, at http://www.aafrc.org/ (accessed 30 June 2006).

23 In Italy, professional musicians are trained in the 58 State Music Conservatories and in the 21 accredited Institutes of Music, run by city governments. During the 2004 – 2005 academic year, according to government statistics, there were 41,341 students enrolled in conservatories and accredited institutes. In these schools, education was focused only upon classical music, with the exception of a few jazz professorships that involved perhaps 1 per cent of the students enrolled. A few years ago, with the Law of 21 December 1999, no. 508, the reformation of musical education was started, which would lead over the course of a few years to a profound change in the approach employed in this sector of public education. Yet, even today, a sizable proportion of the professional musicians who teach in the conservatories or who work in symphony orchestras, have only Italian junior high school diplomas – aside from the Italian conservatory diploma, where the traditional curriculum is limited exclusively to musical practice, with no education of a cultural or humanistic nature (with the exception of music history) – and therefore present an embarrassing shortcoming in terms of scholarly or cultural capital. The level of education increases, of course, among the younger generations, even though it is still quite rare today to find musicians who have both an Italian conservatory diploma and an Italian university degree, or laurea.

24 Italy today possesses excellent musicians and ensembles performing Renaissance and Baroque music, though for the most part they received their training outside of Italy. It has only been in recent years, in fact, that education and training in the performance of pre-classical music has begun to make its first timid appearance in Italian musical conservatories, following decades of exclusion.

25 One notorious case – though it was unjustifiably emphasized by the predictable uproar that ensued – was Muti's decision, with respect to the performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Teatro alla Scala (2000 – 2001 season), to eliminate in the celebre cabaletta‘Di quella pira’ the concluding high C, which does not appear in the original score, but which became over time part of the tradition of the production of this opera, ultimately becoming a veritable piece of bravura in a tenor's repertoire. In the name of restoring the score to its original form, freed of all subsequent ‘encrustations’, the elimination of the high C was justified by the simplistic observation that if the composer did not put it in the score, he clearly did not want it included.

26 Unless I am much mistaken, neither of the two directors has ever been invited to Italy to direct a new production of an opera. However, many years ago Peter Sellars polemically declared that he would never set foot in Italy to direct an opera there.

27 In ‘Il Corriere della Sera’ and other publications in Italy, the comments and reviews have targeted Gérard Mortier for the most part, questioning a number of his decisions, gratuitously portraying them as provocative, demagogic, or artistically mediocre. See for instance Colombo (1997).

28 Law of 21 December 1999, no. 508.

29 Royal Decree of 11 December 1930, no. 1945.

30 For an overview that dates back several years but which remains interesting in its treatment of the overall problems of musical education in Italian schools, see Grazioso (1994) and also Ferrari (2002). As far as graduate-level education is concerned, in recent years among various universities there has been a proliferation of courses and seminars devoted to popular music and master's degrees focusing on musical management and communications. In the conservatories as well, though to a lesser degree, we are seeing the first steps toward this orientation in terms of teaching and research.

31 The term coined by Appadurai is used here metonymically with reference to the diffusion of music not only through recordings but also live performance (concerts, opera, etc.). In this section, there is no examination of the radio and television sector because no significant data are available for our purposes.

32 See in this connection Torti (2000).

33 Paradigmatic, in this connection, given its inability to focus upon the social landscape of musical consumption and practices is the previously cited research project carried out by ISTAT, La musica in Italia.

34 In the postwar years a negative trend can be seen in other countries as well, such as France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. In Germany, however, between 1949 and 1982, the annual total audience at opera performances rose from about 3 million to over 5 million. See Trezzini and Curtolo (1987).

35 See Gasperoni et al. (2004: 40). Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine from the answers what instruments these young people play. Because if we are talking about the recorder (the instrument called for in the musical education programs), then we are talking about the mere rudiments of musical practice taught in school, while if instead we are talking about the guitar or other instruments then clearly we are dealing with specific interests and preferences.

36 According to the IFPI estimates mentioned above, over the course of five years, overall global sales of recording media dropped from 3,657,200,000 units in 2000 to 2,755,700,000 billion units in 2004, with an overall decline of 24.65 per cent. Positive trends emerged, in contrast, in the sharp increase in sales of DVDs, and in rapid expansion of the market for digital music purchased legally online. According to the IFPI, between 2004 and 2005, the global market for digital music tripled, rising from US$380 million to US$1.1 billion.

37 See FIMI press release 23 June 2005 [http://www.fimi.it accessed 30 June 2006]. The estimates of the IIPA (International Intellectual Property Alliance) in its 2006 Special 301 Report Italy are slightly different: according to the IIPA, the size of the clandestine music market in Italy is shrinking, dropping from 23 per cent in 2004, to 20 per cent in 2005 [http://www.iipa.com/countryreports.html]. As for the peer-to-peer downloading of music files, it is estimated to be smaller in Italy than in countries like the UK or France, which both have a larger number of broadband Internet connections. In 2005 in Italy, there were 6.7 million broadband Internet connections as against 10.7 million in Germany, 9.8 million in the UK and 9.9 million in France. See Mueller (2006).

38 An investigation into popular music in a panorama such as that found in Italy, which, to make reference once again to Appadurai's model, could be called at the very least, ‘disjunctive’, would most likely be required to explore not only the three ‘panoramas’ considered, but also the ethnoscape and technoscape (see note 1).

39 With reference to the theme of underdevelopment, De Mauro (2004) carries out a merciless examination of the many inadequacies that afflict the cultural system in Italy.

40 De Mauro (2004: 23). In Italy, there are 2 million total illiterates; 15 million semi-illiterates; and 66 per cent of the population has reading and writing deficits, as compared with a European average of 50 per cent.