Bari, rebirth of the Petruzzelli now looking abroad

At the beginning of 2014, a couple of months before Massimo Biscardi took office as superintendent of Bari's Petruzzelli Theatre, few would have bet on a reversal of the institution's complicated economic-financial situation. The close dependence on public funds, the hundreds of pending civil lawsuits, the difficulty in attracting new audiences and the need to rationalise expenses seemed to have radically compromised the role of this Apulian cultural institution. Yet today, ten years later, the historic Teatro di Tradizione seems to have easily overcome these difficulties, thanks to work linked to both artistic research and care for the consolidated.

The numbers tell the tale, with a +162% increase in attendance, +42% in public contributions and above all a total of private contributions that has almost tripled, reaching 1,137,165 euro. A kind of miracle compared to the southern context, where the attractiveness of culture for the entrepreneurial class has been far too limited for decades. "Private support has grown," explains Superintendent Biscardi, "we now count on partnerships with various local and international companies. Moreover, through private donations of different sizes, we can involve more and more people, bringing the public in Bari closer to our cultural project'. The Petruzzelli Theatre has in fact also launched a campaign for donations from individuals, with a series of benefits that increase according to the size of the donation, such as exclusive invitations to rehearsals of performances, ceremonies and convivial events.

The most striking result, however, is related to the change in the audience: now it is young people between 18 and 30 who fill the stages the most, overtaking the over-60s who have long represented the most loyal claque. This is an important signal, which puts to good use the audience development work structured over the last two five years with the programming for young people. To the latter, the Petruzzelli has thrown its doors wide open, offering open rehearsals, dedicated operas and concerts (at affordable prices) specially designed for families. To this must be added the guided tours, almost daily and often combined with meetings in schools, useful for providing students with a deeper understanding of the operas they will attend. The 2025 season will be an opportunity for an artistic overview that will draw on romanticism, verism, modernism and the 20th century avant-garde, combining traditional and less common musical compositions. Works that are 'neglected but interesting' as Biscardi defines them, which deserve to be part of our cultural heritage. Now the Petruzzelli Foundation's commitment is to become even stronger on the internationalisation front, which will soon take the form of a collaboration with the Krakow Opera House and a tour to the Theatre of Muscat, in Oman.