Abstract

The author, a former Naples' Teatro San Carlo sovrintendente (general manager), examines the economic and financial crisis of the Italian Opera Houses. He criticizes the Government approach to intervene almost exclusively on the employment contracts to reduce the fixed cost of the Opera Foundations and to promote labour flexibility. It identifies the problem of fixed costs with the structure and functioning of the corporate governance, the inability of the Board members of the foundations - among them are representatives of the city mayor - to counter the requests of the labour unions, in the short, as in the long run. His suggestion is to modify the corporate governance separating the orchestra, the chorus and the ballet (if existing) from the Theatre (the original Foundation), creating new companies, controlled by the artists-workers, linked with the Foundations by long-term production agreements.