Between Endowments, Subsidies and Mediations: the Work of Impresari and Agents in Managing an Opera Season on the Eastern Adriatic Coast

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the process of nation-building took place, though shifted in time, with similar strategies in the countries of the region.The (musical) theater was one of the central institutions of nation-building; researching its history brings us closer to understanding the complex cultural processes that characterizes this multilingual region. In the framework of a previous Visegrad Grant project (The Network of the Musical Theatre Companies in the Multilingual East-Central Europe, Project No. 21720187), the survey of the region’s source material from the period 1860–1920 (Regional Source and Bibliographical Database) has already been carried out by this research group. Continuing this pioneering work, the recent project focuses on personalities – theater directors, composers, and prominent singers; most of their careers are connected to a number of cities in East-Central Europe. Currently, these biographical studies are only partially or superficially available; moreover, there is no regional overview at all. The main purpose of this project is to make progress in this respect and, as a result of our joint work, to present the regional network that promoted the creation of the nationally oriented music theatrical industry in the very period as the cosmopolitan genre of the opera was acclimatizing in the major multilingual and multi-ethnic cities of East-Central Europe.