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  • Cited by 6
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
July 2020
Print publication year:
2020
Online ISBN:
9781108855990

Book description

In the first third of the twentieth century, South America became the most important market for many European theatrical companies. When Italy found itself in various theatrical crises, Walter Mocchi created a transoceanic theatrical empire, using his business acumen to craft viable solutions. While his efforts were most visible in the sphere of opera, he played an extremely significant role in the promotion and circulation of popular forms of musical theatre (such as operetta) and staged world premieres of works by Italian superstars in Argentina (such as Mascagni's Isabeau), thus offering an early example of what Stephen Greenblatt calls 'cultural mobility'.

Reviews

‘Paoletti demonstrates how Mocchi not only adapts to the changing reality of the industry, but also proposes new business schemes that continually modify the general rules of the game. In a sense, the figure of Mocchi really works as a guide (or an excuse) to understand how the musical theater industry was shaped between Italy and South America in the first decades of the last century.'

Pedro Augusto Camerata Source: Revista Argentina de Musicología

References

Sources

This research draws upon a significant number of hitherto unexplored sources, most significantly the STIN company archive held at the Archivio Storico Capitolino in Rome. This repository is considered one of the largest private theatrical archives in Italy (41 boxes, 422 folders, 5.5 metres in length).1 Besides accounting records, the archive contains correspondence and other written documents.2 Other repositories consulted for the study include the archives of the Camere di Commercio (Boards of Trade) in Rome and Milan, the Archive Visconti di Modrone in Milan, and the Municipal Archives of Rome, Genoa, Parma, Turin, and Buenos Aires.

Newspapers and Magazines (Consulted Periods in Parentheses)

  • Avanti! (1905–1931), Milan

  • L’Arte Drammatica (1905–1922), Milan

  • Ars et Labor (1907–1921), Milan

  • Boletin Oficial de la República Argentina (1907–1930), Buenos Aires

  • Caras y caretas (1898–1941), Buenos Aires

  • Correio da Manhã (1907–1955), Rio de Janeiro

  • Correio Paulistano (1905–1955), São Paulo

  • Corriere della Sera (1903–1931), Milan

  • Comœdia (1907–1914), Paris

  • Giornale d’Italia (1907–1926), Rome

  • Gazzetta dei Teatri (1908–1924), Milan

  • Le Ménestrel (1920–1925), Paris

  • Die Musik (1920–1925), Berlin and Leipzig

  • La Nación (1907–1925), Buenos Aires

  • Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (1920–1924), Leipzig

  • Nosotros (1921–1922), Buenos Aires

  • O Paiz (1907–1929), Rio de Janeiro

  • Il Popolo d’Italia (1923), Milan

  • La Revista Artística de Buenos Aires (1907–1908)

  • La Stampa (1904–1931), Turin

  • Il Teatro illustrato (1907–1914), Milan

  • Il Tirso (1908–1910), Rome

  • La Tribuna (1908–1925), Rome

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