Dubai Opera, an Italian behind the attendance record. 'Courage is needed in the choices'

"Despite the term 'Opera' in our brand, we are not an opera house, but a performing arts centre. If I had to look for a parallel with Italy, I would perhaps cite the Parco della Musica in Rome,' says Petrocelli. But the parallels stop there: Dubai is a unicum as a city and as a population, globally, and equally unique is the management and business model of the Dubai Opera House, which is based on three elements.

The first element is artistic and cultural in the strictest sense, represented by the performances that the Dubai Opera House presents, with the clarification that, at present, it is not a production theatre, but hosts the productions of the most important international institutions, covering the entire spectrum of the performing arts.

The second element is the rental of spaces, to generate additional economic value, but also to enhance the cultural and artistic offer, thus hosting the activities of realities linked to the world of entertainment and investing in bringing the projects of great artists here. The third and final element of the business model is to host private or institutional events from various fields, including luxury and fashion. "All this helps to generate further economic return and to position us as one of the reference organisations for culture, but also entertainment, in the Arab world," explains the superintendent.

On the possibility of bringing this model to Italy, Petrocelli is cautious: 'I do not find a copy-paste approach correct: first of all you need to interpret the expectations of your own community, listening to its needs and talking to all its components, from the public to the institutions, to possible private sponsors,' he says. 'One of the biggest challenges for our theatres in Italy is convincing sponsors to support their activities: this should push us to make courageous choices, innovating the decisions of our institutions on cultural policies. In my opinion, it is not useful to go to a sponsor to convince them to participate in a specific project: we need to put ideas and the vision of what kind of cultural city we want to create back at the centre. I am sorry we do not hear in the European and Italian debate what kind of cultural project we want to create, what kind of vision. Perhaps we are missing an opportunity to regain a leading role in cultural policies'.

However, Petrocelli admits, 'Managing a large foundation is also an act of great responsibility: it is not easy to activate innovation processes and there is often great resistance even from within. I believe, however, that it is necessary, with courage, to pursue non-destructive attempts at change, not to replace the old with the new at all costs, but to create paths of transformation. Instead, it seems to me that in Europe and in Italy we are stuck in a sort of plateau, where things more or less work, but in the medium to long term this will not allow all the theatres, all the orchestras and all the corps de ballet to survive in a sustainable manner'.

The new generations must also be more courageous in expressing their ideas in order to contribute to this debate: 'There is a lot of criticism of the older generations,' he concludes, 'and I partly share this criticism. However, I also see a certain timidity in the new ones in proposing alternative models and a lack of collaboration'.