Somewhere between Tosca and Turandot, the exhibition Puccini – Opera Meets New Media, recounts how the disruptive impact of old media – namely, recorded music and film – affected the entertainment industry, culture and society.
Launched in Berlin last April and now landed at La Scala, the Puccini exhibition showcases an array of never-seen-before documents.
From displaying the Archivio Storico Ricordi, which are the unpublished sketches from the final duet of Turandot that were with the composer in Brussels before his death to create an animation that sees AI recreate the sets of his unfinished opera according to the composer’s original intentions, the show uncovers an array of new highlights.
To mark the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death, last April, Bertelsmann and Archivio Storico Ricordi premiered Opera Meets New Media – Puccini, Ricordi and the Rise of the Modern Entertainment Industry, a multimedia exhibition on the composer and the interaction between opera and the media of the time.
Giacomo Puccini. Photograph: Archivio Storico Ricordi
The exhibition is displayed at the Museo Teatrale alla Scala until 12 January 2025, curated by the scientific director of the Archivio Storico Ricordi, Gabriele Dotto, and musicologists Christy Thomas Adams and Ellen Lockhart, who joined forces to unfold a pivotal turning point in the world of opera and the cultural industries.
Thanks to the vast heritage of the archive, the most rounded musical collection of the Maestro, the exhibits and installations describe the challenges of the new media of the time on copyright, and the construction of the Puccini ‘brand’ and the composer’s transoceanic journeys to promote his works.
Puccini – Opera Meets New Media | Photograph: Archivio Storico Ricordi
For curator Gabriele Dotto, they represent one of the most surprising contents of the exhibition: “They have never been shown in public before, which in itself makes them special,” he says, explaining how “they are captivating on several levels because music scholars will be intrigued by their unfathomable complexity.
“For La Scala, the Puccini centenary is the continuation of a path taken over the years with the presentation of the composer’s works in new productions directed by Riccardo Chailly,” opines Dominique Meyer, superintendent and artistic director of the Teatro alla Scala.
“Maestro Chailly will also conduct an extraordinary concert with Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann on November 29th, the exact day of the centenary of his death”.
Puccini – Opera Meets New Media | Photograph: Archivio Storico Ricordi
Puccini – Opera Meets New Media | Photograph: Archivio Storico Ricordi
Donatella Brunazzi, director of the Museum, explains how in recent years the commitment of the Museo Teatrale alla Scala has been aimed at presenting the immense heritage of melodrama from new points of view.
“This new Puccini event is an opportunity to reaffirm a cultural line that exudes openness to innovation and to continue the natural relationship between the Teatro alla Scala and Ricordi, in the very premises that once housed the publishing house”.
by Chidozie Obasi