A Huge Revolution of Theatrical Commerce
Walter Mocchi and the Italian Musical Theatre Business in South America

This Element explores Walter Mocchi's revolutionary role in opera and musical theatre in South America in the early twentieth century.

Matteo Paoletti (Author)

9781108790482, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 August 2020

75 pages
22.9 x 15 x 0.5 cm, 0.14 kg

'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, Revista Argentina de Musicología

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'.

1. Introduction
2. Crisis in Italy, opportunity in South America: theatrical economies at the turn of the twentieth century
3. Mocchi in South America: the Sociedad Teatral ?talo-Argentina
4. Mocchi in Italy: the early years of the Società Teatrale Internazionale
5. Becoming the 'Buffalo Bill of Italian impresarios': Mocchi and La Teatral
6. Mocchi and World War I: new challenges, new cooperations
7. New initiatives, new controversies: Mocchi in the 1920s and 1930s
7. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Popular culture [JFCA], Dance & other performing arts [AS], Theatre management [ANS], Theatre studies [AN]