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The internationalization of musical life at the end of the nineteenth century in modernized Paris and Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2013

GESA ZUR NIEDEN
GESA ZUR NIEDEN*
Affiliation:
Institute of Musicology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Jakob-Welder-Weg 18, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
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Abstract:

This article examines the relationship between the processes of urban renovation in European capitals and the internationalization of musical theatre productions, using the example of theatres constructed in Paris and Rome at the end of the nineteenth century. Due to the limited availability of governmental and municipal funding, the more popular theatres in both capitals came to provide an important space for musical productions on an avant-garde level, with international repertoires and casts.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 40 , Special Issue 4: Music and the city , November 2013 , pp. 663 - 680
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

In 1907, Parisian music lovers were still eagerly awaiting a French premiere of Richard Strauss’ famous opera Salome, which had been performed for the first time in Dresden in 1905. Following performances in Breslau, Graz, Leipzig, Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Turin, Milan and New York, and because of the many scandals, notably in Berlin and New York, that Oscar Wilde's erotically charged text had provoked, it had aroused great curiosity among the public of the so-called ‘capital of the nineteenth century’. Having tried for a long time to set up a French version of Salome with Wilde's original text in the Opéra Garnier or the Théâtre de la Gaîté, and having reached a compromise between the French Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques and the composer Strauss on the performing rights, the Parisian impresario Gabriel Astruc finally decided to organize the production himself. To do so, he rented the popular Théâtre du Châtelet, with its large and well-appointed auditorium, which Baron Haussmann had placed right in the heart of Paris above the Île de la Cité during his renovation of the city in 1862.

The reason why Astruc succeeded in setting up a whole opera production in the very short period from the end of March to the end of the summer season, which itself lasted only a few weeks, was that he was able to rely on the help of several European opera houses where Salome had been performed before: singers from Cologne and Leipzig offered to assume the principal roles after the news of a French premiere had been broken by Le Figaro. Furthermore, both the composer and several rich American patrons, such as Otto Kahn, helped Astruc to engage singers from London and New York. In these cities, the two main interpreters of the German version, Emmy Destinn and Olive Fremstad, cancelled their prior engagements. As for the stage director, Strauss and Astruc chose from among those based at the opera houses in Berlin, Vienna and Munich. The stage design was borrowed from the Turin opera. Gabriel Pierné, the conductor of the Concerts Colonne, which had played in the Théâtre du Châtelet since 1873, agreed to study Salome's difficult score with his orchestra, which Strauss had already conducted before in 1897 and 1906. To accommodate Strauss’ large orchestra of 110 musicians, the director of the Châtelet, Alexandre Fontanes, agreed to remove the first five rows in the auditorium so as to enlarge the orchestra pit. In the end, the popular venue Théâtre du Châtelet not only offered a huge, presentable stage for the highly international cast, but it was also flexible enough to adapt its space to the conditions and necessities of this specific production, put on for a highly international audience of French, German, Austrian and American listeners. The press reported that the auditorium looked brilliant and was full of notable politicians, artists and nobility. The performances were such a great success that the French government awarded Strauss the Légion d'honneur in the summer of 1907, despite complaints by many critics that Salome had been performed in German. In the following years, Astruc continued to organize annual ‘great seasons’ at the Théâtre du Châtelet, which notably contained the first Parisian ‘saisons russes’ of Sergej Djagilev's Ballets Russes. In 1913, Astruc opened his own theatre, the newly built Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, which provided another theatrical space for internationally received events like the scandalous Le sacre du printemps (1913). The auditorium in particular provided a perfect space for the audience of the belle époque to ‘see and be seen’ before, during and after the avant-garde performances.Footnote 1

The link between the social, organizational and spatial flexibility of the Théâtre du Châtelet as a venue for successful avant-garde productions and the international reception and acclaim of the productions (meaning, among other things, that different musical genres and social types of audiences could be attracted to the same theatre) raises the question of how the new theatres, which had been built during the modernization of European capitals in the second half of the nineteenth century, came to provide a fertile space for the internationalization of musical theatre in Europe around 1900. This article discusses that question based on a comparison of popular theatres in modernized Paris and Rome.

Urban renovation and musical life between nationalization and internationalization

The cultural and musical history of the nineteenth century is marked by an internationalization of networks and an increase in artistic and critical reception on an international level. Although a number of European countries aspired primarily to strengthen their own national image during this era, historians tend to see the process of internationalization as a general phenomenon because nationalization involves adjusting to other nations in order to compete at a higher level.Footnote 2 The interplay between international adjustment and the demarcation of national boundaries is particularly significant for the musical genres of opera and operetta, as well as the many processes of urbanization that took place at the end of the nineteenth century. On the one hand, both illustrate the expression of nationalization in terms of the development of a ‘national opera’ and the architectural and urban planning of capitals such as London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin or Rome. Examples of the constant overlap of nationalization and internationalization can be found in many publications on music history around the turn of the century.Footnote 3 On the other hand, operatic life and the process of urbanization were closely linked to the development of strong networks between large cities, increasing the exchange of famous musical works, compositional styles or singers, as well as the adoption of similar urban and architectural elements, for example ring roads and the historicist style.Footnote 4

The adaptation of opera productions to attract a broad and international public was also a highly controversial topic. In 1912, in his book Puccini e l'opera internazionale, the Italian music critic and musicologist Fausto Torrefranca expressed his dislike of the work of Giacomo Puccini, whose opera Tosca had had its world premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1900. He accused Puccini of pandering to the tastes of the masses and complained that his operas were therefore too ‘international’, and failed to cultivate the ideal of a national Italian opera.Footnote 5 It is in this context that Jürgen Osterhammel has emphasized opera and cityscapes as the two main factors that shaped the image of the nineteenth century between nationalization and internationalization, in his global history of the nineteenth century, Die Verwandlung der Welt.Footnote 6

During the nineteenth century, operatic life and the process of urban renovation were linked by the construction of new opera houses in nearly every metropolis of the western world.Footnote 7 Initial research on the repertoires, stage design and opera singers has indicated that at the beginning of the twentieth century, opera productions were very similar in Europe and America.Footnote 8 When Rome's municipal council sent the Italian maestro Edoardo Mascheroni on a tour of Europe in 1888 to report on the organizational forms and practices of European opera houses, a journalist commented: ‘the system of musical theatres abroad has been known for a long time to anyone involved in musical matters and our friend Mascheroni will not have to rediscover America’.Footnote 9 One of the reasons for this was the similarity of theatre architecture throughout Europe, which was based on the pervasive Italian model of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.Footnote 10

Against this background, it is interesting to consider the way in which the internationalization of musical life in Europe resulted from the symbolic and practical features of new opera houses of the capital cities which were built during the second half of the nineteenth century. For this purpose, the architectural planning and the artistic use of opera houses will be compared in Paris and Rome. These two cities were chosen because they are the capitals of the two nations which produced the most important operatic compositions during the nineteenth century, Italy and France.Footnote 11 Secondly, what made Rome and Paris particularly comparable was a heavy reliance by Rome's city fathers on the Parisian model both in urban planning and operatic production.Footnote 12 Indeed, whereas Paris was one of the largest centres of European musical life throughout the nineteenth century, Rome was not particularly known for its musical life at an international level for much of the nineteenth century, although it was later to become the new capital of the ‘land of opera’ in 1870. In contrast to other Italian cities such as Milan and Venice, Rome's reputation rested on its antiquity rather than music. As late as 1887, a member of the municipal council of Rome denied the possibility that Rome's theatres could constitute an attraction for foreigners: ‘People accustomed to the performances of the main foreign capitals’, he argued, ‘will not come to Rome to go to the theatre, but to see the ancient queen of the world or to study the progress of modern arts.’Footnote 13 In order to achieve an image of the new Italian capital as a centre of operatic culture, other members of the municipal council argued for Paris as a model for musical productions and urban modernity which Italy needed to emulate in order to compete on an international level. A new, modernized Rome seemed inconceivable without prestigious sites for an internationally recognized musical life. This is why, in the same year, 1887, Rome's municipality decided to build a theatre modelled after a Parisian example that would be, they hoped, the ‘first of the most accredited theatres in Italy and one of the first of the most celebrated theatres of Europe’.Footnote 14 Even if Rome did not count as one of the most important Italian operatic cities, the fact that the state and the municipal council aimed at institutionalizing the new Italian capital's flourishing musical life during the urban renovation, and that they heavily aligned their urban and architectural planning to the Parisian model, makes Rome fundamentally comparable to Paris.

The hypothesis of this article is that it was the more popular and commercial municipal theatres in both capitals that allowed touring companies or international casts, as well as important ‘national’ musical productions, to succeed on an international level.Footnote 15 The background of decision-making behind the construction of these municipal theatres was not simply a matter of local and national programmes of urban embellishment and social life: rather, their primary purpose was to be economically profitable. They had to provide very functional spaces for high commercial profitability. This was achieved first by having large auditoriums that could accommodate around 2,000 spectators or more. Secondly, the stages and their technical facilities enabled the staging of spectacular productions and therefore attracted very large audiences. These last two features constituted perfect conditions for international productions since – as we have already seen with the example of Strauss’ Salome – the municipal theatres were as big as the national operas, the rental fee was low and the producers were allowed to modify the stage and the public spaces to suit production requirements.

This being the situation, in terms of methodology, this study has adopted an approach based on the sociology of cities and architecture. This theory connects the urban and architectural design of capitals to the social and cultural practices embodied by musical theatres: according to Martina Löw, the cultural and social character of a city emerges from its urban and architectural cityscape, which has to be seen as the result of the ‘intrinsic logic’ of a city. In this manner, cityscapes are concrete images that reflect the social and political decision-making of a city.Footnote 16 Accordingly, this article discusses how prestigious the architecture of theatre buildings for the so-called ‘lower’ musical genres was allowed to be by the city fathers, and how well these popular theatres fitted with the urban spaces in which they had been built.

The link between architecture and musical theatre as a social and cultural practice is also evident in the buildings themselves, which sociologists of architecture interpret as a reflection of cultural and social paradigms, as well as arrangements for specific social practices.Footnote 17 As prestigious buildings, theatres not only provide a public space for theatre or music as a symbolically national practice, but also for social and cultural practices and hierarchies connected with music and musical life itself.Footnote 18 Decisions regarding auditorium size and design, the nature of acoustics, the sophistication of stage equipment, the richness of the decoration and proximity to transport connections all had the capacity to affect the economic success as well as the social, political and cultural development of musical theatre as an institution. Architectural theorists widely discussed the question of the outer representation of the building's inner functionality in contemporary architectural manuals.Footnote 19 The symbolic interpretation of the architecture and design of musical theatre thus offers a richly rewarding mode of understanding musical theatre as a sociologically and culturally relevant event involving complex interactions between artists and audiences.Footnote 20

Municipal theatres for lower social classes and wider audiences

The urban renovation of Paris between 1853 and 1870 under Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann and the re-planning of Rome following its nomination as the capital of the unified Italian nation in 1870 were executed on different terms. Whereas Haussmann was motivated by aesthetic ends that overlapped with Napoleon III's ambitions for social reform,Footnote 21 the Italian government and municipality of Rome had to respond to the urgent need to transform the former capital of the Papal States into a symbolic but also, more importantly, a functional capital of the new Italian nation. For this purpose, new public buildings, such as national ministries, had to be built but at the same time it was essential to avoid the destruction of the fabric of the ancient city.Footnote 22 In practice, this meant that unlike Paris, the redevelopment of Rome relied much more on adapting existing urban spaces and historic buildings, including the theatres, than on constructing new ones. In spite of this important difference, and excluding the Parisian Palais Garnier – an outstanding building in terms of its architecture, urban planning and social significance – the new theatres of the two capitals show many urban, architectural and socio-political similarities due to the similar contextual factors of finance, social integration and international cultural competition.

In the belief that Rome constituted the only European capital without a national opera house,Footnote 23 the municipality of Rome frequently referred to the opera houses of Vienna, Frankfurt, Paris and London when discussing the main architectural features appropriate to a capital city and estimating the costs that would be involved. A suitable theatre had to have a spacious layout, a large capacity and a wide stage for major productions. It needed to be detached, rectangular, with good public transport connections and it had to guarantee the safety and comfort of the audience.Footnote 24 The plans for new theatres in Paris and Rome did not vary much as they seem to have been based on general European trends in architectural planning during the second half of the nineteenth century. This common ground can be demonstrated using the example of two theatre-building projects around 1860, i.e. during a period when the Parisian renovation was at its first peak. Both reveal the attention given to ensuring the financial viability of the theatres. The plans by Gabriel Davioud for the Parisian Théâtre du Châtelet and the project for a municipal theatre of Rome in 1859 both stipulated a capacity of 2,000 spectators or more, a huge portico on the exterior façade with a row of arcades on top to receive the crowds, and shops in the lateral façades to provide additional income for the theatre director.Footnote 25

In terms of understanding opera attendance as social practice, from 1853 onwards the objective in both cities was to construct popular theatres for large audiences while maintaining the notion of an internationally renowned theatre, where the traditional and aristocratic aim ‘to see and be seen’ during a visit to the opera could be upheld. Whereas the Théâtre du Châtelet was built in the new centre of Paris, right next to the Palais de la Justice and the Hôtel de Ville, the large, popular Teatro Costanzi was placed in the quarter of the new Termini station. The connection of the new theatre with supra-regional transport routes and the tourist industry was further emphasized by the fact that it was directly connected to a hotel by a subterranean corridor. Due to alignments like this, the more popular theatres often became established venues for opera productions with a highly international cast, a distinguished audience and widespread public attention and in practice they became the main venues of musical theatre in Paris and Rome over the course of time. As we have already seen in Paris, the popular theatre Théâtre du Châtelet, which had been opened in 1862 as a theatre for féeries and military productions (spectacles militaires), hosted the famous Russian ballet seasons in 1909, 1911 and 1912.Footnote 26 Later in the twentieth century its prestige grew even further and, in 1980, it became the ‘Théâtre Musical de Paris’. In Rome, a private businessman had planned the Teatro Costanzi as a so-called politeama,Footnote 27 a term used to refer to theatres intended for a variety of social classes and for a wide range of musical genres. In 1900, the Costanzi hosted the world premiere of Puccini's Tosca.Footnote 28 Finally, in 1926, it became the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, i.e. the main opera house of Rome.Footnote 29

The construction of venues for the musical entertainment and edification of the lower classes was a concern for the governmental and municipal authorities in both cities. In Paris, this took the form of replacing areas of entertainment to make way for Haussmann's Nouveau Paris.Footnote 30 In Rome, the provision of cheap musical theatre was a response to the rapid growth in population and was predicated upon the assumption that the newly created capital city needed to be equipped with theatres appropriate to its status.Footnote 31 In 1859, the future director of the Parisian Théâtre du Châtelet, Hippolyte Hostein, proposed the creation of a dancing school for lower-class girls as part of the new theatre.Footnote 32 This initiative was modelled upon the popular institution of the French orphéons, which were large choirs of working men that were supported by Napoleon III himself.Footnote 33 It was essential to make a show of such philanthropic intentions in order to counter the public perception that the emperor spent more money on new theatres than on finishing the Hôtel Dieu (a new hospital for the poor). In the end, Napoleon III provided an equal sum for the new Hôtel Dieu and for the construction of the Opéra Garnier under Baron Haussmann.Footnote 34 This episode was taken up by the municipal council of Rome to voice scepticism about making substantial investments in the construction of a new theatre, a venture which was widely criticized as pure luxury.Footnote 35

Finally, in 1887, having tried to set up plans for a theatre worthy of the capital funded by the municipality, Rome's mayor Leopoldo Torlonia asked the Ministry of Public Education to co-operate in the construction of such a theatre. This theatre was intended to support young musicians, as the plan was to establish a connection between the opera house and Rome's conservatory which would provide experience, training and employment for the singers and instrumentalists.Footnote 36 In spite of his pedagogic aspirations, the Italian government refused Torlonia's request. As a consequence, the municipality of Rome had to provide an appropriate opera house for the capital of Italy out of its own funds and without any governmental help. Nothing had changed since 1852, when the lack of a large, prestigious theatre in a city known as the ‘universal centre of the arts by long and glorious tradition’Footnote 37 had first been lamented in municipal meetings.Footnote 38 The envisioned and much desired theatre was never constructed. In other words, even if they were officially labelled as ‘national’ opera houses, because of the limitations on government budgets, most of the new (secondary) theatres in both Paris and Rome were created by the municipalities as a part of a programme of urban planning rather than by the state as a project of national aggrandizement. This was true for Rome as much as for Paris, where Préfet Haussmann directed the construction of the Nouveau Paris and its Palais Garnier, and where the Théâtre du Châtelet was built and owned by the municipality. In addition to the censors at the national Ministry of State, the popular theatre's finances and repertoire was therefore also controlled by the municipality.

Attracting an international audience via urban theatrical spaces

As the plans for the new theatres demonstrate, they had to possess the potential to attract foreigners and to emphasize national cultural traditions. By fulfilling these two functions, the popular musical theatres would contribute to the cultural enrichment of the modern metropolises. This is especially evident at the World Exhibition held in Paris in 1867, where the Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet, with its progressive architectural design and technology that allowed it to mount the most spectacular military pieces and féeries, was presented to the international guests.Footnote 39 In reality, these national presentations of cultural traditions (such as typical musical theatre genres) in the form of modern theatre buildings were one of the most important sources of revenue to compensate for the heavy financial strain that the theatre directors were under when they organized their theatrical productions without any governmental and municipal subsidies.

The façades of municipal theatres were often far less richly adorned than their architects would have wished, and this was largely due to insufficient funding.Footnote 40 But this can be viewed in a positive light, as it meant that the outward appearance of the new buildings harmonized better with the surrounding environment. This is especially true for Rome, where the municipality repeatedly chose to renovate the existing theatres, Teatro Apollo and Teatro Argentina, rather than building a completely new one (as was proposed in 1853, 1859, 1865, 1885, 1887) for financial reasons.Footnote 41 The more ambitious plans for renovations that included, amongst other things, extensions or free-standing theatre buildings were also limited by the urban context, in that neighbouring buildings that stood in the way were too difficult to purchase or expropriate.Footnote 42

In the case of Paris, financial factors also played a major role in the decisions about the placement of new municipal and secondary theatres. Until the beginning of the construction of the Théâtre du Châtelet, Haussmann's administration had been able to benefit from the advantageous laws of expropriation because they were allowed to resell the modernized grounds themselves and could therefore assure considerable profit as compared with the original price of expropriation (révente).Footnote 43 Haussmann had acquired the land in the Boulevard du Temple where historically seven theatres had always stood, and in order to sell this land on, and because he wished to remain the project owner of the new Place du Chatelet, he decided to rebuild two theatres from the demolished Boulevard du Temple in the new heart of Paris. Thus, the new Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet and its neighbour, the Théâtre Lyrique, were chosen to occupy the new Place du Châtelet. This was part of a wider plan to avoid cluttering the new city centre with residential buildings but more importantly the two theatres served to guarantee the symmetry of the ‘grande croisée de Paris’ (the ‘big Parisian junction’) of the two main east/west and north/south road axes.Footnote 44 The so-called ‘secondary theatres’ were thus completely aligned with his symmetrical master plan. Thus, the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre Lyrique embodied two of the guiding principles in refurbishing the French capital: symmetrical urban planning and the harmonious integration of similar building types. The two theatres were built in an architectural style which was an eclectic mixture of French, Austrian and German characteristics, combined with features borrowed from the Italian Renaissance. Indeed, according to Gabriel Davioud's plan, the façade of the Théâtre du Châtelet consisted of a double arcade, based upon Palladio's Palazzo della Ragione in Vicenza, which had been used by the French architects André Jacques Roubo and François Debret for the first free-standing theatre building in 1777.Footnote 45

During the nineteenth century, this kind of ‘neo-Renaissance’ structure had been employed for the most prestigious theatres all over Europe. The Dresdner Hoftheater (1838–41, designed by Gottfried Semper) and the Hofoper in Vienna (1863–69, by Eduard von der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg) are two obvious examples. As Monika Steinhauser notes, the neo-Renaissance façades dissolved the relation between the architectural form and the institutional function of the building. Instead, these façades provided an urban space for the expression of authentic cultural tradition.Footnote 46 Consequently, most of the new theatres of Europe displayed architectural elements characteristic of the highly theatrical period of the Renaissance, such as the open loggias on the first floor.Footnote 47 Whereas a monumental exterior could only ever express an ideological meaning, these loggias could be used by the audience to ‘see and be seen’, during the intervals.Footnote 48 In this way, the façades undermined a purely ‘national’ symbolism in favour of greater openness for a broader audience and repertoire. Indeed, the Napoleonic symbols integrated into the façade of the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre Lyrique did not principally highlight political power but instead provided a harmonious decoration that emphasized the aesthetic appearance of the symmetrical main axes and the ornamental coherence of the buildings around the Île de la Cité, from the Place Saint Michel up to the new Place du Châtelet. Footnote 49

The inclusion of neo-Renaissance features in the design of the prestigious opera houses in Vienna and Dresden was also typical of the many theatres planned for Rome between 1852 and 1887. In 1853, the aristocratic architect Antonio Lovatti presented a design which showed many similarities to Gottfried Semper's Hoftheater in Dresden where the curved façade with a double row of arcades on the outside reflected the amphitheatrical form of the auditorium inside.Footnote 50 In 1880, the private investor Domenico Costanzi inaugurated his new theatre, the Teatro Costanzi, situated in the recently finished district around the main train station Termini. This building, designed by the architect Achille Sfondrini, also featured a portico with a row of arcades on the first floor.

This symbolic openness and flexibility suggested by the exterior design was also reflected in the interior of the newly built theatres. From 1900, the Théâtre du Châtelet hosted many opera companies and the French premieres of foreign operas that were not included in the programme of the Opéra Garnier. Unlike France's main opera house, the Théâtre du Châtelet provided a flexible space that could be adapted to a new audience – for example the Parisian audience of the belle époque – as the producers saw fit. As noted above, in 1907 Astruc was able to stage the French premiere of Salome, which Pedro Gailhard, the director of the Opéra, had refused to include in the season's programme due to the complexity of its score.Footnote 51 In 1909, Sergej Djagilev opted for the Théâtre du Châtelet for his inaugural season of Russian ballet following difficulties with the staff of the Paris opera house during the first performances of Russian opera in 1908.Footnote 52 Both impresarios were free to modify the Théâtre du Châtelet substantially, for example by removing the first five rows in the parquet to accommodate Strauss’ orchestra, building new boxes for Djagilev's elite audiences or replacing the stage floor with pinewood for the dancers.Footnote 53 For the 1909 season of the Ballets Russes, Djagilev revamped the whole of the Théâtre du Châtelet's auditorium, renewing the velvet covers of the chairs, covering the floors with red carpets and putting plants in the corridors.Footnote 54 Thus, the popular theatres constituted flexible spaces for the realization of new and successful opera formats that were highly regarded at an international level.

The popular theatres were compared very favourably with venues such as the Opéra Garnier in terms of accommodating large audiences or ambitious spectacles, but also in terms of the quality of their acoustics. The Théâtre du Châtelet was constantly compared to the Palais Garnier because of its enormous stage and in 1911, the internationally renowned conductor Felix Weingartner asked Gabriel Astruc to rent the Théâtre du Châtelet rather than the Opéra Garnier because the acoustics were better there.Footnote 55 In a similar way, the Teatro Costanzi, one of Rome's ‘secondary’ municipal theatres, was frequently seen as adequate for staging grand operas. The municipal council often discussed the question of whether to build a new opera house or to accept the Teatro Costanzi as the main national opera house of Italy. It was noted that the owner was willing to accommodate any special requirements and that major ballet and opera productions, such as Excelsior, Amor and Othello had been successfully staged there.Footnote 56 Given the Costanzi's proven adequacy and flexibility, which would have also included further renovations and architectural changes similar to the ones introduced by Diaghilev to the Théâtre du Châtelet, the construction of a new opera house was postponed until a later date.

Nonetheless, even though the inauguration of the new Teatro Costanzi was attended by the high society of Rome, the municipality and government repeatedly rejected Costanzi's offer to sell his newly built theatre so that it could become the Teatro Nazionale (National Theatre) of Rome. The councillors objected to the peripheral location of the theatre as well as the small number of boxes, which did not meet the requirements of a national theatre to accommodate the upper classes.Footnote 57 At the same time, the old-fashioned system whereby theatre boxes were aristocratic property constituted a significant barrier to the modernization of Rome's existing theatres, such as the Teatro Argentina or the Teatro Apollo. On the one hand, it was difficult for the municipality to convince the box-owners of the need for change, especially with a view to opening the theatres to the lower classes.Footnote 58 On the other hand, the municipal council was extremely dependent on the box-owners, since their subscriptions constituted a valuable source of income for financing new theatre constructions. The city council was so conservative that it did not accept Costanzi's offer, even after he had promised to install more boxes and reduce the number of rows for lower-cost seating.

In fact the mixture of privately owned boxes and ticketed seats seemed to provide fertile ground for encouraging the success of avant-garde productions influenced by the French naturalism movement.Footnote 59 This is especially true of the Roman production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana in 1890, which marked the beginning of a long period of successful Roman opera productions of Italian verismo, a post-romantic operatic tradition based on the literary naturalism by Zola and Ibsen. Mascagni's opera emerged from a competition organized by Edoardo Sonzogno, an up and coming publisher from Milan who specialized in the French (naturalistic) repertoire and had rented the Teatro Costanzi in 1889. For the production of the winning work, Sonzogno engaged the well-known singers Roberto Stagno and Gemma Bellincioni, who had already sung in Milan, New York and Buenos Aires.Footnote 60 The reception of Cavalleria Rusticana across Europe relied on the fact that the one-act work, although brief, entailed several scene changes: a good premise to attract an audience that was not well disposed to sitting through Wagner's operas or the grand opera. Such large audiences were essential to fill the big Teatro Costanzi, an original politeama. Footnote 61

International musical life and urban representation

During the process of urban renovation in Paris and Rome, increased capacity in operatic theatres was seen as a guarantee of financial prosperity in the absence of governmental subsidies.Footnote 62 Municipal governments generally harmonized the exterior design of the new opera theatres with the general appearance of the city. Therefore, these theatres did not radiate an ideological symbolism of nationhood, but presented flexible spaces for new opera productions, from an artistic and a practical point of view, as well as from a commercial one.

Moreover, the comparison between the popular Parisian and Roman theatres shows that their inner capacity was even more important than their outward representation and location in the urban environment. The latter could be an advantage, as is evident in the example of the Parisian Théâtre du Châtelet, which was able to attract impresarios of international opera productions, or a disadvantage, as in the case of Rome, where officials could not agree on whether to designate the Teatro Costanzi as the official national theatre due to its peripheral setting away from the city centre. Nevertheless, it was due to the inner capacity of these two theatres rather than their façade architecture or location that international opera productions were staged there. In order to increase this capacity to the maximum, the architecture of the auditoriums relied on a clever compromise between the number of prestigious boxes and balconies and a collective seating in the galleries affordable for less wealthy spectators.

The conclusion that in the course of history the large, popular theatres constructed during the Parisian and Roman renovation processes at the end of the nineteenth century would become major theatres of the city in both capitals also relies on the fact that the outer and inner architectural design of the newly built theatres reflected important social changes in the musical audiences. These changes became evident as the municipal governments responded to two formerly separate musical practices at the same time: a prestigious visit to the opera by the nobility and the provision of entertainment for the middle and the lower classes. The municipal theatres that were constructed during the reurbanization processes in the late nineteenth century are fertile objects of study for music historians since they offer many examples of the municipal interference in different musical practices. In the case of Rome's Teatro Costanzi, the question remains in how far Italian composers such as Puccini were aware of the changing social structure of the music public that was already reflected by the socially ‘open’ auditorium of the politeama. In the case of the Parisian Théâtre du Châtelet, such awareness was clearly the case as can be shown at the example of the orchestra Concerts Colonne that aimed at ‘popularizing’ classic music there since 1871.Footnote 63

Given such changes in the social structure of the auditorium, the fact that Rome never acquired an opera house to match the Opéra Garnier in Paris, the Hofoper in Vienna, or La Scala in Milan can also be explained. The Roman municipality's notorious lack of money for cultural institutions delayed the modernization of the outdated box-ownership system and the corresponding structure of the auditorium for several decades. With the exception of the Teatro Costanzi, no other theatre in Rome applied the complex approach that combined a huge auditorium with the aristocratic practice of ‘to see and be seen’. Because there were so many ancient sites that had to be conserved in Rome, no prefect ever considered re-planning the whole city or of providing new theatres for the municipality which would be independent from private investors such as box-owners. For these reasons, Rome never enjoyed a monumental, prestigious opera house like Paris. Nevertheless, the private Teatro Costanzi fitted perfectly with the architectural and urban features of internationalizing operatic life at the end of the nineteenth century, even though it was not situated at the core of the seventeenth-century city centre.Footnote 64

References

1 See zur Nieden, G., Vom Grand Spectacle zur Great Season. Das Pariser Théâtre du Châtelet als Raum musikalischer Produktion und Rezeption (1862–1914) (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2010), 262–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 François, É., ‘Europäische lieux de mémoire’, in Budde, G., Conrad, S. and Janz, O. (eds.), Transnationale Geschichte. Themen, Tendenzen und Theorien (Göttingen, 2006), 294–5.Google Scholar

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4 Bouvier, F., ‘Vom Interimstheater Brünn zum Grazer Opernhaus. Baukünstlerische Kriterien der Theaterbauten von Fellner & Helmer’, in Dienes, G.M. (ed.), Fellner & Helmer. Die Architekten der Illusion. Theaterbau und Bühnenbild in Europa (Graz, 1999), 53Google Scholar.

5 Torrefranca, F., Puccini e l'opera internazionale (Turin, 1912), 1–36.Google Scholar For more information on Puccini's ‘international style’, see Döhring, S., ‘Puccinis “Italianità”’, in de la Motte-Haber, H. (ed.), Nationaler Stil und europäische Dimension in der Musik der Jahrhundertwende (Darmstadt, 1991), 122–31.Google Scholar

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7 Toelle, J., ‘Der Duft der großen weiten Welt. Ideen zur weltweiten Ausbreitung der italienischen Oper im 19. Jahrhundert’, in Müller, S.O., Ther, P., Toelle, J. and zur Nieden, G. (eds.), Die Oper im Wandel der Gesellschaft. Kulturtransfers und Netzwerke des Musiktheaters in Europa (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2010), 255–6Google Scholar; Hafner, O., ‘“Jedermann erwartet sich ein Fest” Opernhausboom und Gründerzeit’, in Dienes, (ed.), Fellner & Helmer, 38–41.Google Scholar

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9 ‘gli ordinamenti dei teatri musicali all'estero sono noti da gran tempo a tutti coloro che si occupano di cose musicali, e l'amico Mascheroni non avrà da scoprire l'America’. d'Arcais, Marchese, ‘Questioni musicali e teatrali. Il viaggio di Mascheroni’, L'Opinione, 202 (23 Jul. 1888)Google Scholar.

10 The same was true for the stage designs, which had been dominated by the Italian school until the first half of the nineteenth century. G. zur Nieden, ‘Europäische Tendenzen in der Entwicklung des Opernbühnenbilds im 19. Jahrhundert am Beispiel von Italien, Frankreich und Deutschland’, in Stachel and Ther (ed.), Wie europäisch ist die Oper?, 55–72.

11 The French and Italian repertoires were played all over Europe and in America, whereas operas from Germany, such as Wagner's, were integrated only little by little and often met with an adverse or defensive response, for example in Paris.

12 For more on how Haussmann's Paris influenced the ‘piano regolatore’, i.e. the general urban plan for the new Italian capital, see Bauer, F.J., Rom im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Konstruktion eines Mythos (Regensburg, 2009), 143 and 162Google Scholar; Hall, T., ‘Paris – Napoleon III. – Haussmann. Unerreichbares Vorbild für den Umbau zur Metropole’, in Fehl, G. and Rodriguez-Lores, J. (eds.), Stadt-Umbau: die planmäßige Erneuerung europäischer Grossstädte zwischen Wiener Kongress und Weimarer Republik (Basel et al., 1995), 54Google Scholar; Petersen, J., ‘Rom als Hauptstadt des geeinigten Italien 1870–1914. Politische und urbanistische Aspekte’, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 64 (1984), 278Google Scholar.

13 ‘Esclude l'oratore in modo assoluto che il teatro in Roma costituisca un'attrattiva pei forestieri. Chi è assuefatto agli spettacoli delle maggiori Capitali dell'estero non si reca in Roma per andare al teatro, ma per salutare l'antica regina del mondo, per studiare i progressi dell'arte moderna.’ ‘49° proposta. Concorso nelle spese ed appalto per l'agibilità del teatro massimo d'opera e ballo’, Atti del Consiglio comunale di Roma, 1 (1887), 470. See also Degrada, F., ‘La “Generazione dell’80” e il mito della musica italiana’, in Nicolodi, F., Musica italiana del primo Novecento. ‘La Generazione dell’80’ (Florence, 1981), 88Google Scholar, and R. Meloncelli, ‘Sul rinnovamento della vita musicale romana’, in Nicolodi, Musica italiana del primo Novecento, 219.

14 ‘il teatro municipale di Roma sia destinato ad essere il primo fra i più accreditati teatri d'Italia, uno dei primi fra i più celebrati d'Europa’. ‘130° proposta. Nuova proposta per l'agibilità del teatro mediante appalto a trattativa privata.’ Seduta del 3 giugno 1887, Atti del Consiglio comunale di Roma, 1 (1887), 647.

15 As Didier Francfort noted a decade ago, the consideration of popular music and institutions is particularly important for a hypothesis on the internationalization of musical life: scholars also have to take into account the so-called ‘lower’ genres of musical theatre, such as operetta, to describe the level of international networks and elements in the operatic life of a capital. Francfort, D., ‘Rome et l'opéra’, in Charle, C. and Roche, D. (eds.), Capitales culturelles. Capitales symboliques. Paris et les expériences européennes XVIIIe−XXe siècle (Paris, 2002), 399–400.Google Scholar

16 Löw, M., Soziologie der Städte (Frankfurt am Main, 2008), 18–20.Google Scholar

17 Delitz, H., Gebaute Gesellschaft. Architektur als Medium des Sozialen (Frankfurt am Main, 2010)Google Scholar, e.g. 11–12; Schäfers, B., Architektursoziologie. Grundlagen – Epochen – Themen (Opladen, 2003), 31–2.Google Scholar

18 Viale-Ferrero, M., ‘Luogo teatrale e spazio scenico’, in Bianconi, L. and Pestelli, G. (eds.), Storia dell'opera italiana, parte II: I sistemi, 5: la spettacolarità (Turin, 1988), 3–4Google Scholar.

19 Kemp, W., Architektur analysieren (Munich, 2009).Google Scholar

20 Small, C., Musicking. The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Middletown, CT, 1998).Google Scholar

21 Marchand, B., Paris, histoire d'une ville (XIXe–XXe siècle) (Paris, 1993), 73–4Google Scholar; Haussmann, Baron G.E., Mémoires (1893) (Paris, 2000), 749 and 833Google Scholar; Anceau, É., Napoléon III. Un Saint-Simon à cheval (Paris, 2008), 358Google Scholar.

22 Bauer, F.J., ‘Roma Capitale: Geschichtsverständnis und Staatssymbolik in der Hauptstadt Italiens (1870–1940)’, in Engel, H. and Ribbe, W. (eds.), Via triumphalis. Geschichtslandschaft ‘Unter den Linden’ zwischen Friedrich-Denkmal und Schloßbrücke (Berlin, 1997), 164Google Scholar.

23 ‘74° proposta. Provvedimenti per l'esercizio del teatro comunale (22 Aprile 1888)’, Atti del Consiglio comunale di Roma, 1 (1888), 531.

24 Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 100° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverila. Seduta del giorno 8° maggio 1885 and 179° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma. Seduta del 5 Luglio 1886.

25 Daly, C. and Davioud, G., Architecture contemporaine. Les théâtres de la Place du Châtelet: Théâtre du Châtelet – Théâtre Lyrique. Construits d'après les dessins et sous la direction de M. Gabriel Davioud, Architecte (Paris, 1865)Google Scholar; Archivio Capitolino, Titolo 15: Spettacoli Pubblici, Catena 146, busta 20, fasc. 9, sottofasc. 5, Progetto di economia per la edificazione di un nuovo Teatro di Spettanza comunale. Lì 12 Aprile 1859.

26 de Nussac, S., Le Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris, 1995).Google Scholar For a list of all productions in the Théâtre du Châtelet, see 213–15.

27 At the end of the nineteenth century, many Italian opera houses tried to adapt their theatres to attract the lower classes by making architectural modifications, but they were outperformed by the many politeama. Sorba, C., ‘Lieux du théâtre et architecture de la société urbaine: éléments sur le cas italien à la fin du XIXe siècle’, in Traversier, M. and Gauthier, L. (eds.), Mélodies urbaines: la musique dans les villes d'Europe (XVIe–XIXe siècles) (Paris, 2008), 241–54.Google Scholar

28 Incagliati, M., Il teatro Costanzi 1880–1907: note e appunti della vita teatrale a Roma (Rome, 1907), 158–60.Google Scholar

29 1926: Teatro Reale dell'Opera (Comune). 1958: Teatro dell'Opera. Frajese, V., Dal Costanzi all'opera: cronache, recensioni e documenti, vol. I (Rome, 1977), 30Google Scholar.

30 Naugrette-Christophe, C., ‘La fin des promenades: les bouleversements de la carte des théâtres dans le Paris du Second Empire’, in Konigson, E. (ed.), Le théâtre dans la ville: espaces et lieux urbains théâtralisés, théâtres-monuments et urbanisme, théâtres de banlieues et de villes nouvelles (Paris, 1987), 104–39.Google Scholar

31 Bauer, Rom im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, 98; Toelle, J., Oper als Geschäft. Impresari an italienischen Opernhäusern 1860–1900 (Kassel, 2007), 58–60Google Scholar.

32 Archives Nationales de France, F21 1143, letter from Hippolyte Hostein to the Ministre d'État, 14 Oct. 1857.

33 Zur Nieden, Vom Grand Spectacle zur Great Season, 44.

34 Théâtre Impérial du Chatelet. L'Hôtel-Dieu, l'Opéra, à propos (15 août 1864). Musique de M. Victor Chéri, chanté par M. Rosier (Paris, 1864).

35 ‘In this regard, the speaker is pleased to recall a historic episode. When the Emperor Napoleon III decided to spend 40,000,000 francs on the new opera house of Paris, he insisted that the State would provide the same sum for the hospital Hôtel Dieu. I do not have to underline the great political wisdom of this arrangement. It is true that when a city still has so many urgent requirements, spending such a considerable sum on a building that is not of general benefit, even if it is a source of great admiration for the city and entertainment for a class of citizens, cannot be permitted.’ ‘Giova all'oratore ricordare a questo proposito uno storico episodio. Quando l'imperatore Napoleone III stabilì di erogare quaranta milioni di franchi pel nuovo teatro dell'Opera di Parigi, volle pure che lo Stato erogasse egual somma per l'Ospedale dell'Hôtel-Dieu. Non occorre porre in rilievo la grande saviezza politica di questa disposizione. E invero quando una città ha ancora tanto urgenti bisogni non è ammissibile una spesa, ingentissima per un edificio che se può esser d'osannuto alla città stessa e di divertimento per una classe di cittadini non è certamente d'interesse generale.’ Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 100a proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverila. Seduta del giorno 8° maggio 1885.

36 Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Divisione Arte Moderna – Arte Drammatica, busta 11, fasc. 82: 1887, Arte musicale, Roma: Teatro Apollo, dotazione, letter from Don Leopoldo Torlonia to the Ministry of Public Education, 9 Mar. 1887.

37 ‘Roma centro universale delle arti, per lunga tradizione gloriosa’ Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Divisione Arte Moderna – Arte Drammatica, busta 11, fasc. 82: 1887, Arte musicale, Roma: Teatro Apollo, dotazione, letter from Don Leopoldo Torlonia to the Ministry of Public Education, 9 Mar. 1887.

38 Archivio Capitolino: Titolo 15: Spettacoli Pubblici, Catena 146, busta 20, fasc. 9, sottofasc. 7. ‘Teatro Comunale. At the end of the year 1852, the Roman Magistratura agreed on the necessity to have a theatre owned by the municipality so as to give some glamour to the capital and to avoid the delicate situation of the many times when it had to find a theatre to stage the communal performances which, due to the will of the government, have to be organized in the three seasons of spring, autumn and carnival of every year; in the public manifestation of 21 May of the same year it proposed the construction of a communal theatre.’ ‘Teatro Comunale. Fin dall'anno 1852 la Romana Magistratura penetratasi della necessità di avere un Teatro di proprietà comunale sia pel decoro della Capitale, sia per sottrarsi alla spinosissima condizione in cui ebbe più volte a trovarsi onde ottenere un teatro per produrci lo spettacolo di appalto comunale, che per espressa volontà del governo deve darsi nelle tre Stagioni di Primavera, Autunno e Carnevale di ciascun anno; nei pubblici comizii del giorno 21 Maggio di detto anno si fece a proporre la edificazione di un teatro comunale.’ Archivio Capitolino: Titolo 15: Spettacoli Pubblici, Catena 146, busta 20, fasc. 9, sottofasc. 11, 3.a Proposta pel consiglio del 13 Decembre 1865.

39 On the presence of operetta at the World Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, see Czech, S., Das Operettenbuch. Ein Führer durch die Operetten und Singspiele der deutschen Bühnen (Stuttgart, 1960), 13–14.Google Scholar

40 Délégation a l'action artistique de la Ville de Paris, Gabriel Davioud, architecte (1824–1881) (Paris, 1981–82), 58.

41 Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, ‘Dichiarazione di pubblica utilità pel restauro del teatro Argentina in Roma’, 5 May 1887, and ‘100° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverila. Seduta del giorno 8° maggio 1885’. Archivio Capitolino, Titolo 15: Spettacoli Pubblici, Catena 146, busta 20, fasc. 9, sottofasc. 11, ‘3° proposta pel consiglio dei 13 Decembre 1865’. Archivio Capitolino, Titolo 15: Spettacoli pubblici, Catena 146, busta 20, fasc. 9, sottofasc. 4, ‘Relazione sullo stato dei due Teatri Argentina e Tordinona e loro possibile riduzione per servire di norma alla Commissione particolarmente deputata per la edificazione di un nuovo Teatro Comunale nella scelata di uno dei suddetti teatri. Li 15 dicembre 1859.’ For the time between 1881 and 1888, see Ruggieri, M., ‘Per un teatro nazionale di musica a Roma: il teatro Apollo tra gestione impresariale e progetti di “teatro a repertorio” (1881–1888)’, in Antolini, B.M., Morelli, A. and Spagnuolo, V.V. (eds.), La musica a Roma attraverso le fonti d'archivio (Lucca, 1994), 345–91.Google Scholar

42 See for example the difficulties of making expropriations for the renovation of the Teatro Apollo in 1887–89, in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434.

43 For the concept of ‘révente’ and the changes of this law in 1858 see Marchand, Paris, histoire d'une ville, 80–1.

44 Archives Nationales de France, F21 1039, letter from Camille Doucet to the State Ministry, 30 May 1861; Haussmann, Mémoires, 1115.

45 Steinhauser, M., Die Architektur der Pariser Oper. Studien zu ihrer Entstehungsgeschichte und ihrer architekturgeschichtlichen Stellung (Munich, 1969), 116–17Google Scholar; Carlson, M., Places of Performance. The Semiotics of Theatre Architecture (Ithaca and London, 1989)Google Scholar, 79.

46 M. Steinhauser, ‘Théâtre et théâtralité urbaine au XIXe siècle en Allemagne. L'exemple des théâtres publics de cour’, in Charle and Roche (eds.), Capitales culturelles, 193–206.

47 Bouvier, ‘Vom Interimstheater Brünn zum Grazer Opernhaus’, 58.

48 ‘On this site a splendid and rich loggia on the Corso would be raised for the Municipality for the festivities of Carnival, which could serve the invited dignitaries, but also royals.’ ‘In questa ubicazione si avrebbe per la circostanza delle feste di Carnevale a disposizione Municipale una grandiosa e ricca loggia sul corso, che potrebbe servire d'invito a personaggi distinti, anche Reali.’ Archivio Capitolino, Titolo 15: Spettacoli Pubblici, Catena 146, busta 20, fasc. 9, sottofasc. 5, Progetto di economia per la edificazione di un nuovo Teatro di Spettanza Comunale. Archivio Capitolino, Titolo 15, Spettacoli pubblici, Catena 143, busta 17, fasc. 1, Progetto di un Teatro Municipale del Conte Antonio Lovatti, pubblicato per cura di Romualdo Gentilucci, Roma, Tipografia di Giuseppe Mengoni, Via del Gesù N. 62.

49 Indeed, the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre Lyrique were to reflect each other through their similar façades. Moreover, Davioud developed the ornamentation in harmony with the column of victory in the centre of the Place du Châtelet. The laurels on the column, the two theatre façades and the Pont au Change connecting the Place du Châtelet with the Île de la Cité, provided a harmonious decoration of the entire urban space. For detailed information see zur Nieden, Vom Grand Spectacle zur Great Season, 49–86.

50 Archivio Capitolino. Titolo 15 – Spettacoli pubblici – Catena 143 – busta 17 – fasc. 1, Progetto di un Teatro Municipale del Conte Antonio Lovatti, pubblicato per cura di Romualdo Gentilucci (Rome, 1853).

51 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Archives, Carton 2.240, Dossier Richard Strauss-Salomé, IV (30), letter from Adolph Fürstner to Gabriel Astruc, 2 Jan. 1907; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de Musique, L.a. Strauss (R) 11, letter from Richard Strauss to Gabriel Astruc, 27 Dec. 1906.

52 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Archives, Carton 2.240, Dossier Ballets Russes, II (49), Rapport Confidentiel sur la SAISON RUSSE organisée à Paris au Théâtre Municipal du Châtelet en Mai–Juin 1909 par les soins de MM. Serge de Diaghilew et Gabriel Astruc, undated.

53 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Archives, Carton 2.240, Dossier Richard Strauss-Salomé, V(1), notes of Gabriel Astruc concerning the production of Strauss’ Salome in Paris; Archives Nationales, Papiers Astruc, 150 MI/1, Dossier 7b, telegram from Sergej Djagilev to Gabriel Astruc, 29 Mar. 1909; Lieven, Prince P., The birth of the Ballets-Russes (London, 1936)Google Scholar, 88; Karsavina, T., Ballets Russes (Paris, 1931), 215–16Google Scholar; Fedorovski, V., L'histoire secrète des Ballets Russes. De Diaghilev à Picasso, de Cocteau à Stravinsky et Noureev (Monaco, 2002), 61Google Scholar.

54 Kochno, B., Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes (New York, 1970), 15–16.Google Scholar

55 Archives Nationales de France, Papiers Astruc MI 150/6, Dossier 24: Felix Weingartner, letter from Felix Weingartner to Gabriel Astruc, 13 Apr. 1911.

56 ‘The Costanzi is a theatre that meets all requirements and its owner is ready to introduce any modification that you may ask for. He is ready to sell it as well as to lease or to rent it, and the speaker would not hesitate to advise you to do the latter. The appropriateness of the Costanzi for major performances is proven by those that have already been organized there, like the ballets Excelsior and Amor and the one that is to be performed soon or the performance of Otello, which the illustrious Maestro Verdi would not have permitted if the theatre had not allowed it.’ ‘Il Costanzi è un teatro che corrisponde pienamente a tutte le esigenze e il suo proprietario è disposto a farvi tutte quelle modificazioni che si domandassero. Egli è pronto a venderlo come a darlo in [esitense] o in affitto, e l'oratore non esiterebbe a consigliare quest'ultima forma. Dell'attitudine del Costanzi a maggiori spettacoli danno prova quelli che vi furono già eseguiti come i balli Excelsior ed Amor e quello che si dovrà eseguire fra breve ossia la rappresentazione dell'Otello che l'illustre maestro Verdi non avrebbe permesso se il teatro non lo comportasse.’ Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 48° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverile. Seduta del 4 Marzo 1887. For the Théâtre du Châtelet, see ‘La nouvelle Place du Chatelet’, Le Magasin pittoresque, 34e année (1866), 132.

57 Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 100° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverila. Seduta del giorno 8° maggio 1885.

58 Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 48° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverile Seduta del 4 Marzo 1887.

59 The same combination of privately owned boxes and ticketed seats could be found in the Théâtre du Châtelet, with its auditorium of boxes and two ranks of amphitheatrical rows.

60 Mallach, A., The Autumn of Italian Opera. From Verismo to Modernism, 1890–1900 (Boston, MA, 2007), 21–3.Google Scholar In 1911, Gemma Bellincioni created the role of Salome in Strauss’ French version of Salomé.

61 Conati, M., ‘Un indicatore stradale: Mascagni, Leoncavallo & C. nei teatri tedeschi 1890–1900’, Musica/Realtà, 20/60 (1999), 121–51.Google Scholar

62 In Paris, Hippolyte Hostein tried many times to find subsidies for his theatre – in vain. Napoleon III expected the new building to be a sufficient guarantee for the financial prosperity of the Châtelet. Archives Nationales, F21 1143, Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet. Note relative à la demande d'une subvention, undated/letter from Hippolyte Hostein to the Ministre d'État, 20 Jan. 1863. For Rome, see Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 100° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverila. Seduta del giorno 8° maggio 1885.

63 zur Nieden, G., ‘Konzertreihen als kulturelle Institution. Architektursoziologische Annäherungen an die Pariser Concerts Colonne (1873–1914)’, in Keym, S. and Stöck, K. (eds.), Musik – Stadt. Traditionen und Perspektiven urbaner Musikkulturen (Leipzig, 2011), 538–45.Google Scholar

64 ‘Concerning the utilization of the Costanzi as a main theatre, he does not think that the actual obstacle is the eccentricity of its location but the ease with which it could be attended by minor social classes, whose contact does not please the attendants of the Apollo, though finally the Costanzi, which fits perfectly for the huge and performances as recent experience has demonstrated, and the fact that it houses for the first time the most illustrious artistic productions, is constructed just like the big theatres Drury Lane and Covent Garden in London.’ ‘Quando all'uso del Costanzi come teatro massimo, non crede che l'ostacolo vero sia l'eccentricità della ubezione, ma la facilità onde può essere frequentato dai ceti minori, il contatto dei quali non piace ai frequentatori dell'Apollo, mentre dopo tutto il Costanzi, adattissimo a grandi e decorosi spettacoli, come lo ha dimostrato la recente esperienza e il fatto che in esso si danno per prima volta le più illustre produzioni artistiche, è costruito come i grandi teatri Drury-Lane e Covent-Garden di Londra.’ Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Opere Governative ed edilizie per Roma, busta 155, fasc. 434, 48° proposta al Consiglio Comunale di Roma nella sessione ordinaria primaverile Seduta del 4 Marzo 1887.