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 laboratory, the student is expected to have acquired a certain familiarity with the main areas and features of live Performing Arts (PA). In particular, the student will be able to: recognize the characteristics of an artistic project, identify the main professional figures involved in the ideational, productive and management process of the Performing Arts and become familiar with some production, planning models and tools.

The laboratory will offer some opportunities to know real cases of PA production (opera and dance companies, orchestras and festival).

The focus of the laboratory is the festival format: some italian and international cases will be examined in order to outline the different possible typologies and features in terms of artistic contents, target, puroposes, organization and management of production activities (artistic project, activity scheduling, logistics, budget, relations with the territory, economic sustainability, promotion and accessibility).

The final part of the lab consists of creative team work: each group will be asked to conceive a detailed and motivated proposal for a new, original festival, accompanied by a series of elaborations relating to the different areas of PA management.

The laboratory will offer opportunities to meet with professionals from the world of PA and a field visit to a production reality in the Emilia-Romagna region (an opera foundation or a traditional theatre, a prose theater or a dance company). For the 2023/24 academic year, students will be able to get to know the reality of Aterballetto, in Reggio Emilia, up close.

Readings/Bibliography

Books extracts, papers and articles will be possibly made available to the students for the discussion at the lesson. The reading of one of these texts in english of your choice is warmly suggested:

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

 

Teaching methods

Seminar method

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