32510 - Laboratory of Performing Arts Management

Learning outcomes

The student is expected to learn frameworks of the performing arts sector in Europe. In particular, the student is expected to: - understand artistic projects, - learn about organizational structures - learn some management models.

Course contents

At the end of the course the student is expected to have become familiar with the different characters and areas of the performing arts. In particular, the student will have learned to: recognize the characteristics of an artistic project, identify different organizational structures and some management models.

The course will offer various opportunities to consider some cases histories of the performing arts sector of our times. Starting from the fundamental key words - such as: season, repertoire, festival, staging, co-production, revival, public, private, economic sustainability, planning, management, communication, fund raising - it will be possible to analyze types, areas and characteristics of different production and management models, both from a historical and cultural point of view.
In particular, the differences between nineteenth-century "impresarios system" and the business model of the last century; the different financing systems; the different production models (season and repertoire); the peculiarities of the different products (drama, opera, dance) and production areas (starting from the Italian situation: teatri stabili, fondazioni liriche, teatri di tradizione, istituzioni concertistiche, festivals…). The focus of our workshop will be the "festival" and some cases history of important european festivals of different genre, considering: artistic project, scheduling activity, relations with the territory, economic sustainability.
The laboratory will also offer opportunities for meetings with leading figures from the performing arts in Italy and for a fieldwork on a case history of the Emilia-Romagna Region (fondazione lirica or teatro di tradizione, drama or a dance company), with site visits.

Readings/Bibliography

Books extracts, papers and articles will be made available to the students for the discussion at the lesson; they must be the object of study in personal work at home.The reading of one of these texts in english of your choice is required:

John ROSSELLI, The Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi: The Role of the Impresario, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984

Giulio GATTI CASAZZA, Memories of the Opera, Ouverture Music Series

Philip EISENBEISS, Bel Canto Bully, The Life and Times of the Legendary Opera Impresario Domenico Barbaja, Haus Publishing, 2013

PLEASE NOTE:

The following titles can be of great help to those are unfamiliar with the subject areas treated in the course:

J.P. Burkholder, D.J. Grout, C.V.Palisca, A History of Western Music

A. Ross, The rest is noise

A. Ross, Listen to this

D. Snowman, The Gilded Stage, A Social History Of Opera

J.R. Brown, The Oxford Illustrated History Of Theater

Cambridge Paperback Guide To Theater

P. Parvis, Dictionary Of The Theater: Terms, Concepts And Analysis

C. Sachs, World History Of The Dance

O. G. Brockett, History of the Theater

 

Assessment methods

In the final phase of the laboratory the students will be asked for the drafting of a festival project to working groups, which will constitute the first evaluation method.

The final oral exam is a check of the methodologies and concepts learned during the laboratory, starting from the contents of the group work.

Teaching tools

During the laboratory, some practical tools will be provided for drawing up master schedules and budget plans.

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Triola