Puccini celebrated his greatest successes at a time of revolutionary media innovations. The development of new entertainment technology, first and foremost film and sound recordings, which soon became widespread, represented a revolution for society and musical culture in the early 20th century, fundamentally challenging the traditional business model of musical theater. It multiplied the distribution of dramatic music and popularized it to an unprecedented extent within just a few years.
The exhibition OPERA MEETS NEW MEDIA – Puccini, Ricordi and the Rise of the Modern Entertainment Industry seeks to uncover the secret of this unprecedented success. It tells of the disruptive forces of new media and their impact; it tells how the artist Puccini and his publisher Ricordi used these times of change to build an international star with the help of modern marketing campaigns; but it also reveals how fundamentally contemporary developments changed the opera business forever.
The exhibition presented this very topical and relevant subject in several audiovisual installations: From the digital 3D modeling of a Puccini portrait to the AI animation of contemporary stage sets.
The accompanying publication „Opera Meets New Media“, edited by curator Gabriele Dotto, is available in bookshops and online.