“It's not true that with culture you don't eat. On the contrary, culture, in addition to having an inestimable value for society, if produced effectively costs nothing to the State and also generates wealth". To reiterate the concept is Fortunato Ortombina, Superintendent of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice for one year, of which he has been artistic director since 2007 after a past at the Scala in Milan and at the San Carlo in Naples. During his management, La Fenice has literally risen from the ashes of the terrible fire of 1996, tripling the musical performances in the last 12 years and doubling the spectators from 2017 to 2018. “Thanks to the ticket office, which today is worth a third of our revenues, we are managed to offset the effects of the 2008 crisis and above all the drastic cuts by the State, which now allocates about half of the funds compared to 2007”. Ortombina explains how this miracle was possible in his interview with FIRST Arte, in which he also spoke on the controversy over the possible entry of the Saudi government into the capital of La Scala in Milan: "We must not be afraid of anyone".
Maestro, 23 years ago the tragic fire and then the long and tiring ascent. Let us play on words: how did La Fenice rise from its ashes?
“It's not a pun, that's exactly what happened. The years of reconstruction were extremely difficult, the Theater reopened in 2003 and the works actually started only in 2001. I let you imagine the logistical difficulties of such an important construction site in a city like Venice. I also remember that there were many controversies: there were those who wanted to take the opportunity to build a construction of modern architecture, but in the end the mayor Massimo Cacciari relaunched the slogan that was already used in 1913 for the reconstruction of the San Marco bell tower: 'as it was before, where it was before'. And so, thanks to the contribution of many subjects, including foreigners, La Fenice made it. For example, Luciano Pavarotti gave us the cachet of one of his performances by the Three Tenors, from which at the time he collected about 2 billion lire. Woody Allen, who was here during the days of the fire, also visited the construction site and donated something. The rebirth of the Phoenix was a miracle, perhaps unique in the world".
You have restarted and, last year, you even doubled the viewers. How was this possible?
“La Fenice, like almost all Italian opera houses, had an audience made up mainly of season ticket holders, it was not very open to tourists and a younger audience. We have simply decided to increase the offer, trying to diversify it. Our Theater was famous for a programming made up of important but obsolete titles, not great classics. We have re-proposed some of them, such as a revised version of Verdi's La Traviata, increasing evenings and productions. In 2010 we did 55 performances a year, in 2011 there were already 105, today there are almost 150. This has aroused the interest of an ever wider audience. It's like a shop or a restaurant: if you find it almost always closed, you're less likely to go there”.
Hasn't this revolution led to an increase in costs?
“That was what I was told at the beginning: how are you going to do all that stuff without spending more? And then I was also told that some shows would be deserted, that it wasn't convenient to schedule so many in a city like Venice which, counting only the historic center, has just 53.000 inhabitants. Instead we have debunked both of these myths: producing more does not mean spending more, it was enough to optimize, make better use of the resources we had available. In recent years we have not hired anyone: we have done all this with the same employees, and without resorting to overtime. In the past we used the workforce at 40% of their capacity, now we are around 85-90%. Let me also add one thing."
Prego.
“In 2018, in addition to doubling the audience, we also recorded a significant turnaround: until 2017, the most represented nationality in the public was the French, since last year it is the Italians. The Venetians, but also the spectators arriving from all over Italy, thanks also to the infrastructures that connect the country better than in the past. I'm thinking, for example, of the high-speed train that takes you here from Florence today in two hours. Before there were only season-ticket holders, today La Fenice is open to everyone, even young people”.
In this regard: there is much talk of today's young people as uninterested in culture and obsessed with social networks. Instead…
“I'm telling you the truth: perhaps there is more demand for culture today than when I was a student. First, because the cultural institutions themselves have changed, with Veltroni's reform which transformed them into private law foundations. Who knows, if this reform had arrived earlier, perhaps we would have had the same demand in the past too, but the fact is that with that passage, museums, theatres, etc. have improved their offer, they have opened up to the world. And then there's another thing to say: negative attitudes always make more headlines than positive ones. Then there is a lot of talk about the young person or the tourist who takes selfies on a gondola, but there is also the student who silently comes to see shows at the theatre”.
A renewed interest despite school, where, according to you, the approach to the artistic subject is still too "romantic". What do you mean?
“At school they teach us that genius is synonymous with unruliness, unfathomable. We have never considered art as the result of a work and not only as an expression of genius, which in my opinion is however produced from a precise context, it is not something ephemeral and unfathomable. In reality, the great artist is above all a great professional. The geniuses of the past were great managers: take for example Giuseppe Verdi, who was called 'the peasant poet' but who in reality was never poor, had an agricultural but entrepreneurial mentality. Verdi spent at least half of his time in business, and only the other half in music. I'll tell you an anecdote: while he was composing the opera Il Trovatore, he received a visit from one of his collaborators and jotted down 'purchased 20 oxen' on the same sheet where there were the lines 'D'amor sull'ali rosee' by Leonora. A copy of that document still exists today. At the same time Verdi, and all of opera, was the highest form of literature of the time. Verdi and Donizetti were better for me than Manzoni himself”.
They are the great classics of our culture, the one that according to some "doesn't feed"...
“And of course that's not the case. Look at us: our accounts are in order, despite the fact that the State has halved the funding compared to 10 years ago, and what we are given we return through the taxes paid by related industries, which according to a study from a few years ago is worth 60 million l year for the city of Venice. We have never been more independent than in 2018: now a third of our revenues come from the ticket office, that is over 11 million euros, while in 2007 the box office only brought us 3. To complete our budget, which is 35 million a year , there are 18 million from the Mibac, 2 from the Municipality of Venice, 500 million from the Veneto Region and then about 3 million from sponsorships and private contributions. This was also possible thanks to the Art Bonus, launched four years ago and which allows a tax credit, equal to 65% of the amount donated, to those who make donations in support of public cultural heritage. Among the main partners, I point out Generali, Intesa Sanpaolo, but also various international investors”.
Speaking of foreign investors, the controversy has flared up over the possibility that the Saudi Arabian government will enter the capital of La Scala in Milan with over 15 million. What do you think?
“Fifteen million is a lot, but there are also other investors, it wouldn't be a majority stake anyway. And in any case, I believe in the sovereignty of Italian music: we mustn't be afraid of anyone, not even the Arabs. If anything, the problem is political, but it doesn't concern La Scala's Italian spirit. Today there is a lot of talk about the defense of sovereignty but opera, as an art form, is much more sovereign than the sovereignists themselves. Think of the story of Arturo Toscanini, the greatest Italian conductor, who was staunchly anti-fascist and yet he was considered untouchable even during the years of fascism. Once, in 1930, he refused to play the anthem in Bologna and was physically attacked by a group of fascists. Mussolini himself, realizing Toscanini's popularity, did everything to bring the episode back. He realized that nationalist propaganda was less important than national culture. However, Superintendent Pereira is very good, he has many contacts all over the world and he will find a solution”.
By the way, his name is being made for Pereira's succession. He confirms?
"No comment".
