Petruzzelli, in ten years spectators almost tripled

It has been a 'very tiring' ten years, but the results repay all the efforts and prove that 'when there is time, will and the help of everyone, wonderful results can be achieved'. Massimo Biscardi has been the superintendent and artistic director of Bari's Petruzzelli, one of Italy's 14 opera foundations, since 2014. When he arrived in June 2014 to run the theatre, which had just emerged from commissarial management, the situation was not the best, starting with a €200,000 budget loss and a series of labour lawsuits to stabilise around 200 precarious workers.

Today, the scenario has completely changed: for ten years the foundation has been in the black and, above all, the Petruzzelli has once again become a reference point for audiences from the city and the region, who make up just under 80% of the spectators, while another 10% are Italians from other regions and 12% foreign visitors. From 2013 to 2023 audiences almost tripled, from 43,411 in 2013 to 113,797 last year (+140%), a figure higher even than the pre-campaign figure for 2019 (102,742), and the first three months of 2024 bode well for a further increase, with 99% of shows selling out and box office sales already exceeding 50% of projected revenue for the entire year. "This could help us reach my goal, which is to bring the Foundation's budget to 20 million euro, the figure I consider just right for the Petruzzelli to truly act as a protagonist on the Italian opera scene," adds Biscardi. Last year, the value of production stood at 18.5 million euros, to which not only ticket receipts (1.8 million euros compared to 1.3 million in 2013) and public contributions (14.3 million) contributed, but also the resources allocated by private members and sponsors, including important regional industry realities, which in 2023 allocated more than 1.1 million euros compared to just over 382 thousand euros collected in 2013, an increase of 298% from 2017 to date. "But I am sure that more can be done," says Biscardi, expressing a wish for these last two years of his mandate, which will expire in June 2025, "so I am still asking for a little more effort from our private partners and public shareholders, because the goal of 20 million euros is achievable.

A number of choices made in recent years have contributed to supporting the restoration and relaunch of Bari's theatre - not only from an economic-financial point of view, but also from an artistic and cultural one. First and foremost, the desire for the Petruzzelli to be 'not an exclusive venue, but a theatre for all citizens,' the superintendent explains. 'This is a real victory for me: to have managed to create a ticket office accessible to different price brackets, including young people under 30, who make up 55% of our audience.

This is also the reason why takings - as opposed to the number of spectators - are still lower than in 2019: with Covid, the show business went into crisis and the Petruzzelli chose to lower ticket prices even further. 'I believe that programmes are like journeys that are made together, like on a bus,' says Biscardi: 'if you only see one stage of this journey, it may be fine to pay 300 euros, but our programmes are made so that the greatest number of people can follow us for the whole journey. That is how theatre makes sense to me and that is how we expand our knowledge'.

In addition, the theatre's role is also educational, with a rich programme for young people and children, which has also had the beneficial effect of bringing parents into the theatre.