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Article: Diminuendo. (Italian opera)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- March 24, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN THE week that Luciano Pavarotti, arthritic in knee but glorious in voice, was making his triumphant return to the London stage, the operatic news from home was alarming. Although ticket sales may be steadily rising in all 13 of Italy's big opera houses, these owe their survival-as opera houses do almost everywhere-to lavish state subsidies; and this season the subsidies have been cut in half, down to 204 m-pounds ($329m). Next year another cut will bring them to a mere 182 m-pounds. As Carlo Fontana, the manager of Bologna's Teatro Comunale, puts it, animosamente: "We shall simply be obliged to shut down."
With the exception of Verona's open-air summer season ...