Impresario
An impresario (from the Italian impresa, "an enterprise or undertaking")
History
The term originated in the social and economic world of Italian opera, in which from the mid-18th century to the 1830s, the impresario was the key figure in the organization of a lyric season.[2] The owners of the theatre, usually amateurs from the nobility, charged the impresario with hiring a composer (until the 1850s operas were expected to be new) and the orchestra, singers, costumes and sets, all while assuming considerable financial risk. In 1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart satirized the stress and emotional mayhem in a single-act farce Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario). Antonio Vivaldi was unusual in acting as both impresario and composer; in 1714 he managed seasons at Teatro San Angelo in Venice, where his opera Orlando finto pazzo was followed by numerous others.
Alessandro Lanari (1787–1852), who began as the owner of a shop that produced costumes, eliminated the middleman in a series of successful seasons he produced for the
Duchess Elisabeth Sophie of Mecklenburg[3] was a harpsichordist who also presided over seventeenth-century North German court music as an impresario.
Modern use
The traditional term is still used in the
Application of term
The term is occasionally applied to others, such as independent art museum curators[6] and conference organizers[7] who have a leading role in orchestrating events.
Figurative impresarios
See also
- Entrepreneur
- Promoter (entertainment)
- Theatrical producer
- Artist manager
- Film producer
- Television producer
- Patronage
References
- ^ New Oxford American Dictionary. Impresa: enterprise; deed; company. Mondadori's Pocket Italian–English English–Italian Dictionary. The term is sometimes misspelled impressario.
- ^ Rosselli, John (1984). The Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi: The Role of the Impresario. Cambridge University Press. This history is summarized here.
- ISBN 9780252037016.
- Asia Week.
- ^ "Broadway Rodeo". Time. 18 October 1937. Archived from the original on 2 June 2008.
- ^ "New Impresario for the Showcase". Time. 24 November 1967. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007.
- AIGAMedalist.
- ^ Jacques-Yves Cousteau Archived 2007-12-03 at the Wayback Machine on Bartleby.com
- ^ Nicholas Wade (25 October 2005). "Long-Ago Rivals Are Dual Impresarios of Darwin's Oeuvre". The New York Times.