Crossing the Adriatic: Singers Mobility and Operatic Goods Transfer in the Steamship Era

After an impresario has signed a contract for the hiring of an opera season and the appropriate arrangements have been made with the artistic staff, opera companies needed to reach the theatres where they would perform for a series of evenings. But how did the artists of an opera production at the turn of the 20th centuries arrive at their destination? Alone, accompanied by the impresario or by other colleagues, singers could face long journeys by more or less comfortable means to reach their destinations. The paper reconstructs the main routes to the theatres on the eastern Adriatic coast and the methods by which sceneries, costumes, stage props and scores were transferred to their respective destinations. By what means did the journeys take place? How did their timing affect the progress of a season? How was structured the system of communication between theatre management, impresario and artists when departures were decided? The steamship was an irreplaceable means once singers or musicians, for example from the Italian peninsula, arrived at one of the ports served by the Hungarian-Croatian, Ragusea or Austrian Loyd companies. Mistakes in the shipment of goods, injuries or indispositions caused by the journeys, and difficulties with accommodation once on site, enrich the description of a picture in which materiality and mobility intertwine against the backdrop of renewed trans-Mediterranean cultural networks.