Federación Española de Sociología (FES)
XI Congreso Español de Sociología – ‘Crisis e Cambio: Propuestas desde la Sociología’
Grupo 18 - Sociología de la Cultura y de las Artes
Coordina: Javier Noya (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
An opera in search of the large number, or a mismatch between means and ends
Teresa Duarte Martinho
(Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, ICS-UL)
This presentation focuses on an initiative, unprecedented in Portuguese cultural life, which
took place in 2008, at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (TNSC), the only national theatre
where opera is produced.
The initiative was the broadcast of the opera Das Märchen, by Emmanuel Nunes (19412012), the most well-known of modern Portuguese composers. The opera is based on an
allegory by Goethe (1749-1832), and its distinguishing feature is that it blends opera and
contemporary music. Commissioned by the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, which allocated it
one third of its production budget for that season, Das Märchen had its world premiere there on
25 January 2008. To broaden access to the opera and increase spectator numbers, the promoters
arranged for it to be broadcast simultaneously in fourteen theatres in different regions of the
country (see table 1). They were assisted in this by a telecommunications company, which
installed special screens in those theatres. But public demand fell well short of expectations (see
table 2). Across the board, very few spectators attended, and many of them left the show before
it had finished.
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Table 1:
The broadcast of the opera Das Märchen (January 25, 2008): Theatres and municipalities
Theatres
Municipalities
Teatro Aveirense
Teatro Pax Julia
Cine-Teatro Avenida
Teatro Académico Gil Vicente
Teatro Bernardim Ribeiro
Teatro Lethes
Teatro Miguel Franco
Teatro Baltazar Dias
Centro de Congressos
Teatro Diogo Bernardes
Casa da Música
Teatro Micaelense
Teatro Virgínia
Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Aveiro
Beja
Castelo Branco
Coimbra
Estremoz
Faro
Leiria
Funchal (Madeira)
Portalegre
Ponte de Lima
Porto
Ponta Delgada (S. Miguel, Açores)
Torres Novas
Guimarães
Source: Diário de Notícias (January 25, 2008).
Table 2:
The opera Das Märchen: Attendance numbers
Theatres
Attendance
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (January, 25, 27 and 29)
2060
14 theatres in different municipalities (January, 25)*
1352
Total
3412
*Free entry.
Source: Público (January 31, 2008); Diário de Notícias (February 1, 2008).
One main hypothesis underlies the analysis of this event, namely that this was an initiative
whose form and outcome demonstrate the many arguments which arise when funding is used to
back the creation and production of certain works of art, particularly when that funding is
provided by the state.
In this presentation I propose to survey those different arguments.
First, we should note the arguments used by those in charge of cultural policies to justify
their actions: i) recognition of a well-known Portuguese composer working in a genre with little
exposure, contemporary music; ii) providing wider access to works of art in the name of certain
principles, like spreading cultural democracy. This in spite of the fact that the broadcast was
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“live”, but the audiences were not experiencing it as a “live” event, which did not help
audiences to penetrate the density of Das Märchen1. On the other hand, some composers, critics
and cultural programmers argued that too much of the total public funding available for music
was used up in this production, and this generated a lively discussion of the criteria for the
public funding of creative work. These arguments were sharpened by the failure of the piece in
terms of audience numbers, which led to criticisms of the choice of Emmanuel Nunes’ opera as
the vehicle for the first opera broadcast in Portugal and for a major national operation to
disseminate contemporary music, especially when it is well-known that audiences generally
have little exposure to the ‘classical music’ genre. Underlying these criticisms is the following
question: how can the conventional (the ‘classical’) and the innovative (the ‘experimental’) coexist in cultural institutions’ programming?
The main conclusions which can be drawn from this analysis are as follows. First, the
principle that the value of the work of art is to be measured by the numbers of those who like it
creates greater problems for creators when the existence of the work depends on state support.
Secondly, those who manage and target audiences for less popular art forms must not forget
how important it is to acknowledge conventional forms, in order better to appropriate
innovation. Otherwise, there is a risk that the public exposure which creators get in this way
may actually work against their reputation and their work.
Bibliography:
Assis, Paulo de (ed.) (2011), Emmanuel Nunes. Escritos e Entrevistas, Porto, Casa da
Música/Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical.
Carvalho, Mário Vieira de (2011), “Macdonaldização da comunicação e da arte como fast food:
Sobre a recepção de Das Märchen”, in Alda Correia, Gabriela Cardoso, Fernando Ribeiro,
Manuel Canaveira (eds.), A Arte da Cultura (Homenagem a Yvette Centeno), Lisboa, Colibri,
pp. 169-196.
Elias, Norbert (1993), Mozart - Sociologia de um génio, Asa.
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Betting on a gigantic operation dissemination of opera with a work with these brands aesthetic "is how
to broadcast a game of chess", in the words of the composer António Pinho Vargas (1951) to express his
doubts about the effectiveness of the operation (quotation from newspaper article in Público, January 29,
2008).
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Gomes, Rui Telmo e Lourenço, Vanda (2009), Democratização Cultural e Formação de
Públicos – Inquérito aos “Serviços Educativos” em Portugal, Lisboa, Observatório das
Actividades Culturais. Available at http://www.oac.pt.
Griswold, Wendy (1987), “A Methodological Framework for the Sociology of Culture”,
Sociological Methodology, Vol. 17, pp.1-35.
Kennedy, Dennis (2009), The Spectator and the Spectacle. Audiences in Modernity and
Postmodernity, Cambrige University Press.
Martinho, Teresa Duarte (2012), “Towards a Review of Culture and Democracy in Portugal”,
Comunicação apresentada na VII International Conference on Cultural Policy Research
(ICCPR), Barcelona, Julho de 2012.
Morató, Arturo Rodríguez (2010), “A metamorfose do valor cultural na sociedade
contemporânea: desafios e paradoxos”, in Maria de Lourdes Lima dos Santos e José Machado
Pais (orgs.), Novos Trilhos Culturais. Práticas e Políticas, Lisboa, Imprensa de Ciências
Sociais, pp. 37-61.
Saint-Cyr, Sylvie (2006), Vers Une Démocratisation De L’Opéra, Paris, L’Harmattan.
Santoro, Marco (2008), “Culture As (And After) Production”, Cultural Sociology, Vol. 2, pp.731.
INE – Instituto Nacional de Estatística (2012), Estatísticas da Cultura – 2011, Lisboa, INE.
Available at http://www.ine.pt.
OAC - Observatório das Actividades Culturais (2012), Estatísticas Culturais do Ministério da
Cultura 2010, Lisboa, Observatório das Actividades Culturais. Available at http://www.oac.pt.
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