In Parma, the exhibition Opera: the stage of society, an exhibition on opera

From September 18, 2021 to January 13, 2022, the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma is dedicating an exhibition toopera and its relationship with society: it is Opera: the stage of society, and is part of the program of Parma Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2020+2021. The exhibition,curated by art historian Gloria Bianchino and Verdi scholar Giuseppe Martini, on a set design project by Margherita Palli Rota, is produced by the City of Parma and realized by Casa della Musica, in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma. The aim of the exhibition is, as anticipated, to explore the two-way relationship between opera and society: there are 514 exhibits including paintings, antique volumes, prints, photographs, librettos, magazines, archival documents, costumes, props, and audiovisual and sound materials from 75 public and private lenders.

Among the works on display are I vespri Siciliani (1846) by Francesco Hayez from the Galleria di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome and, also by Hayez, Pope Urban II on the Square of Clermont Preaches the First Crusade (1835) from the Cariplo Foundation Collection in Milan, and then again the painting Au théatre (1885-1895) by Federico Zandomeneghi from theMatteucci Institute in Viareggio, a section of portraits of Lina Cavalieri, including Cesare Tallone ’s Portrait of Lina Cavalieri (1905) from the Campari Gallery in Milan, the series of photographs by Francesco Paolo Michetti from the Alinari Archives in Florence, the fragment ’W Verdi’ from the Musei Civici in Treviso, the original libretto of Monteverdi’sOrfeo from the Biblioteca Teresiana in Mantua, stage and evening gowns, including a Balenciaga piece from Tirelli Costumi in Rome.

Despite the fact that for centuries its audience belonged to the aristocracy, opera has over time become synonymous with popular passion, managing to cross the dimension of entertainment and spectacle to become not only a collective memory, but a representation of a nation’s identity. Along 20 rooms of the Governor’s Palace, an itinerary divided into three sections opens, investigating the influence of opera on the customs and traditions of the time and on the political scenario: the exhibition thus proposes a journey through the opera universe in its connection with the processes of national autonomy, the civil values of the community and the reflection on one’s own identity and past.

The world of opera is presented from various aspects: Its audience and the way of being in the theater, the paths that melodrama took to approach a wider audience and the means that allowed it to get off the stage and make itself known outside the theater, its influence on culture and on thecollective imagination, its dialogue with politics, between regimented art, protest and censorship, its contribution to the broadening of linguistic knowledge through librettos, and finally the changes in listening modes, from mechanical organs to the record, and its relationship with old and new communication tools, from radio to television and the Web. Starting with the territory of Parma (rich in tradition and names that have made history such as Giuseppe Verdi and Arturo Toscanini), visitors can discover in the exhibition itinerary the secret of opera’s longevity, which reveals itself to be both moldable to the changing times and a preserver of the rituals of living together, from clothing to gastronomy, especially in Parma, from gestures to visual imagery. Also on display are playbills, postcards and caricatures in magazines and calendars that over the years have changed the way opera, its characters and popular stage moments are represented.

The exhibition itinerary

The first eight rooms (Rooms 1 and 2 “From Birth to Maturity,” Room 3 “Censorship,” Room 4 “Political Protest,” Rooms 5 and 6 “Opera and Regimes,” Rooms 7 and 8 “Opera, Politics and the Contemporary”) focus on the mutual influence between opera and the political system. It was precisely its success that ensured the genre’s continuous observation by political authority, both to guide consensus and discipline morality and to check that it did not convey content dangerous to power. In parallel, the history of opera is a continuous struggle against authority in the name of the composer’s artistic freedom. The theater has often been chosen as a physical site of protest, but contestation has also occurred through staged works, as in the case of the Risorgimento uprisings and the twentieth-century regimes. Room 10, “Being at the Opera,” is an articulated social activity: the performance is not just a performance to watch, but becomes a pretext for establishing social relations by eating, sipping, chatting, and flaunting one’s role through codified rituals.

The exhibition continues, in five other rooms, analyzing the influence of opera on different aspects of society (Room 11 “Figures of Memory,” Room 12 “Opera and Words,” Room 13 “Gesture is Character,” Room 14 “Opera is Woman,” Room 15 “Passion for Opera”). Theater is the memory of the individual, the characters, the performances, the collective memory of a civic dream, but it is also a tool that has helped make the female figure sovereign of the stage. Important is the contribution made by opera to the Italian language and literature: librettos have been vehicles for increasing the vocabulary not only of enthusiasts, and introducing great foreign authors such as Hugo, Shakespeare, Dumas. In addition, opera, initially exclusive to the aristocracy, opened its doors to a wider audience, which recognized it as a representation of the identity of an area and the entire nation. In this context, new iconographies of the genre spread and soon became part of the popular imagination: among them the gestures of the singers, initially viewed with hilarity but soon recognized as a visual code with which the protagonists of the operas could be identified.

The last section of the exhibition illustrates the material that has gathered over time around the communication of opera (Central Room “The Hanging Opera,” Room 17 “Opera to be read, opera to be laughed at,” Room 18 “Opera outside the theater,” Room 19 “The Myth of Opera,” Room 20 “Opera reproduced”). Toward the end of the nineteenth century, graphic reproductions of opera scenes on sheet music, photographic images, and various iconographic material of the opera universe began to circulate in the form of postcards, calendars, figurines, and then in magazines, in newspapers, playbills, and posters. These were joined by early reviews, parodies, and excerpts of the performances repurposed by more popular forms, such as band music and puppet theater, to name a few. The mass media of the twentieth century then changed the world of melodrama, allowing increasingly easy access to the consumption of opera performance, multiplying its knowledge in ways never experienced before and demonstrating how opera has always been able to adapt to the new.

Complementing the exhibition is a series of collateral initiatives, curated by Gianluigi Giacomoni, offering various opportunities to learn more about the show. On the calendar are themed concerts offered by Parma’s main concert institutions with musical programs on the most important works of the 19th century; workshop activities for families and schools, with the aim of educating and involving a new young audience; and meetings on the themes chosen by the exhibition with guests to directors of theaters and television channels, presidents of musical associations, directors of opera for TV and film, and administrators in the cultural sphere. The catalog is published by the City of Parma.

Practical information

The exhibition is open Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Guided tours by appointment for groups of up to 20 people. Tickets: full price €6 - reduced €4 or €2. Exhibition ticket office: 0521.218035 (number active from September 18, 2021). The catalog is on sale at the bookshop in Palazzo del Governatore, €15. For exhibition and ticket info: opera@comune.parma.it - House of Music 0521.031170

Photo: Alfred Hitchcock on a stage at La Scala (© Fondazione Teatro La Scala)

In Parma, the exhibition Opera: the stage of society, an exhibition on opera

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