THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA DOI number 10.2478/tco-2021-0004 Lyric Theatre – between #rezist and #exist Stanca Maria BOGDAN Abstract: In general, the arts and, in particular, the performing arts are proving to be both affected and sensitive, reactive to societal convulsions, regardless of their nature. Performance institutions are dependent not only on the audience they have created, but, above all, on the funding through which they can shape and convey their artistic message. Overall, crisis situations are associated with a negative context, expressing a stage marked by great difficulties (financial, economic, political) that impact all areas with a domino effect. In such situations, cultural institutions, particularly those in the performances arts0 and especially lyric theaters become one of the predilect victims to suffer from the rationalization of resources, being considered inessential, the perfect sacrificial pawn. But, at the pinnacle of a crisis, cultural performances, drawing from the creator-artist relation, commit to become a coagulating, driving, regenerating social factor, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes. A great such example is Ciprian Porumbescu’s operetta, „Crai Nou”, which held great significance for the Romanian identity when it was first released to the public. Keywords: arts, lyric theatre, crisis, identity, Ciprian Porumbescu. During the events dedicated to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Italy's state formation, on March 12, 2011, the Rome Opera decide to host an event brimming of symbolic connotations, with Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco", conducted by one of the most prodigious contemporary musicians, conductor Riccardo Muti. But what was supposed to be a gala event for the entire political elite, headed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, would Soprano, associate professor at the Faculty of Theater and Film of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca, PhD student of the Doctoral School of Music and Theater of the West University of Timişoara 44 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA suddenly turn into a sublime act of artistic revolt to which the public fully adhered. Staging Verdi’s creation was not a random decision, since „Nabucco” is not only a musical masterpiece, but also a political one. Composed in 1841 and premiered at the "Scala" in Milan on March 9, 1842, the opera follows the plight of the Hebrew slaves in Babylon, almost instantly becoming a sort of parable for the Italians' fight for freedom under the oppression of the Habsburg Empire. Before the performance in the Italian capital, the then mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, a member of the ruling party and former minister in Berlusconi's cabinet, took the stage with a speech denouncing the government's decision to halve the budget for culture. Thus, when the famous "Va, pensiero" aria was performed by the Hebrew slave chorus, the mood in the audience suddenly became tense and electrifying. At the end of the chorus, the audience gave long ovations, accompanied by the frantic applause and shouts of Encore!, and culminating in "Viva l’Italia!". This was the moment when conductor Riccardo Muti, well-known for his intransigence, overcame his obstinacy not to grant encores, because he believed that an opera should be performed in a continuous flow, from beginning to end, and even addressed the audience: „Yes, I am in accord with that Viva l’Italia! I am no longer 30 and I have lived my life. But, as an Italian man who has travelled cross the world, I am ashamed of what’s happening in my own country. So I submit to your request for an encore of «Va, pensiero». I do this not only for this feeling of patriotic emotion, but also because tonight, as I was conducting the chorus singing «Oh, my country so beautiful and lost!», I thought to myself that, if we slay the culture on which the history of Italy is founded, truly our country will be beautiful and lost”. The speech was interrupted by a storm of applause, including from the artists on stage, who rose to their feet. After that, the conductor continued: „[...] I, Muti, have been silent for too many years. Now I would like, we should, give meaning to this area. Since we are in our home, in the capital’s theater, with a chorus who 45 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA sand magnificently and with an orchestra which has marvelously accompanied it, if you truly wish it, I invite you to sing with us together”1. The artists and audience, on their feet and singing in unison, created a unique energy. To the tempo rigorously dictated by the conductor, like a heartbreaking, yet mobilizing lament, the performance reached reverberant emotional heights. It was one of the rare occasions when the cultural symbiosis between creation, artists and the public became a social manifesto directed against a system whose decisions in extreme situations sometimes risk exploding their own foundations. And the images2 need no further commentary. 1 http://www.noriimei.ro/nord/silvio-berlusconi-invins-de-giuseppe-verdi-%E2%80%93- moment-magic-la-opera-din-roma/, Nicolau, Valentin: Silvio Berlusconi defeated by Giuseppe Verdi – a magical moment at the Rome Opera, 2011 2 Video capture collage (author Stanca Maria Bogdan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_gmtO6JnRs 46 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA Radiography of a cataclysm The cause of the event that occurred on the stage of the Rome Opera originated in December 2007 when, amid speculation in the field of real estate insurance on the US interbank market, several financial funds collapsed, generating a domino effect and a great catastrophe. In the context of the increasingly acute shortage of liquidity, the recession gradually became a global phenomenon. The aftermath is well-known. Hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world were compromised and shut down, millions have fallen into unemployment or declining incomes, national budgets turned to austerity measures, and government measures have been among the most drastic since World War II. Moreover, the effects of this crisis continue to have an impact on our lives. The „Nabucco” performance in Rome became the triggering factor of a cultural protest movement, unprecedented in Italy, which the world-wide media covered for a long time3. Three days of protest against the budget cuts for the performance arts institutions, faced with the suppression of over 220,000 jobs. They culminated with a public debate at the Teatro Regio in Torino, where a series of proposals were made to remedy the situation. It was thus requested the reinstatement of the Fund for the Performing Arts (Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo, FUS), meant to designed to ensure a safe and adequate level of funding for the arts sector, while creating tools for tax deduction of sponsorships and donations for cultural institutions, issues that later materialized into government decisions. The situation in Italy was by no means unique. In England, where the only source of cultural funding was the public budget, subsidies for performing arts institutions were reduced by almost 30%. The political class wanted the reduction to become permanent, while encouraging a private funding mechanism for the arts. Still in 2011, in Spain, funding for culture was 3 https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2011/03/22/news/tagli_cultura_dossier_e_iniziative- 13942949/, Manfredi, Alessia: “Cultura e spettacolo al collasso, stop ai tagli”. Mobilitazione in teatri, cinema e musei (translated and summarized from the original article in Italian by Stanca Maria Bogdan), 2011 47 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA reduced by 30%, and the same applied for the Netherlands, while Portugal cut funding for the performing arts by 9%. All these measures were labeled by the then President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, as „very little intelligent”. This was evidenced by the fact that other countries, such as Germany and France not only refused to reduce funding for culture, but have even created new programs for the development of a system to educate citizens through culture. To some extent, in the current state of facts, financial decisions in the cultural field might have seemed partially justified if they had not been founded solely on bureaucratic calculations. That’s on account of the fact that, even if the authorities always turn to the performing arts to mark significant historical or social moments, for a large part of the political class there is a strong, cynical belief that the artistic act is a mere facile tool of populism and entertaining, residing from the ancient saying „Bread and circuses”. The lyric theatre, victim and flag-bearer During times of major economic-financial crisis, in the cultural field, among the performing arts, lyric theatre becomes the most affected segment. The reason for that is that a fist glance of the budgets of such institutions, the amounts seem colossal, at least compared to ordinary theatres. However, if theater institutions can adjust their programs to performances with reduced cast and props, this is almost impossible for lyric theatres. This is due to the fact that opera and operetta performances traditionally mean, in addition to soloists, an exemplary mobilization of over 100 people for the orchestra, conductor, director, chorus, and often the ballet corps and technical staff. Is lyric theatre expendable, though? In the modern era, as we also given the choice of musical theatre, opera and operetta may seem an antiquated realm that has only diversified the packaging of a relatively limited repertoire, whose creations consecutively staged become only increasingly more venerable. If the historical role of lyric theatre in the development of art and society is indisputable, it can be still relevant, even in our modern times, enough to justify the substantial funds involved in its operation? 48 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA Although it’s not at all apparent, the answer couldn’t be more positive. And it's not just about the reactions the intertwining of elaborate music, vocal and theatrical performance, stage movement and dance, shape and color generates in the audience's hearts and minds.