(ANSA) – ROME, OCTOBER 29 – “From the government a very important signal that for the first time addresses the great and always unsolved issue of the capitalization of the Italian Opera Foundations”. At the desk of his study in the splendid Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the superintendent Francesco Giambrone rereads the last draft of the text for the financial maneuver and smiles a little. The 150 million euros in two years that the executive seems to have put on the plate for the Italian Opera Foundations really seem like the outstretched hand that many, from the most famous theaters in Italy, have been asking for for some time.
He had somehow launched the latest appeal a few weeks ago, when in his capacity as president of Anfols, the association that brings together 12 of the 14 Italian foundations (The Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Santa Cecilia in Rome make up a parish a se) was heard in Montecitorio by the deputies of the culture commission engaged in a fact-finding investigation. “The pandemic risks calling into question the virtuous path taken in recent years”, he had begun, the crisis was very hard, despite the refreshments of the state, which there were. The accounts are soon made: 60 million total losses in 2020, 20 million refreshments. Very welcome, of course (“For us an important signal”) but not enough. The foundations reacted and squared off, Giambrone noted, recalling the many streaming initiatives launched during the lockdown to maintain strong relations with the public. But the critical issues that existed even before the virus remained and must now be addressed. At the first point, the unambiguous definition of the legal nature, repeats today to ANSA “because the lyrical foundations continue to operate in an ambiguous condition in which it is not clear when they are public and when they are private”. And in some ways, he says, “we take the worst of the public and the worst of the private”. In short, we need clarity, and there is a way, that of putting together “in a single legal text all the rules that have been stratified over the years in an often contradictory way, making it clear in a definitive way”. No less painful, however, is the issue of past debt: “Foundations have a total debt of 350 million which makes their virtuous management very complex”, he explains, “over the years thanks to the reorganization action that we have all brought forward this weight has decreased, but it is there “. So here is that the 150 million offered by the state with the budget maneuver really help a lot.
In fact, the themes on the table, repeated gradually in these days in the Chamber by many of the supervisors heard in the investigation born from the initiative of the democrat Michele Nitti (who is the conductor of his profession) are also others. Starting from the funding disbursed every year by the Fus, the single fund for the show, which the world of opera and symphonic music (on this key the La Scala and Santa Cecilia also beat so much) would like to have a three-year breath: “We stayed the only sector of the live entertainment that does not have it “, Giambrone says again, this also forces the management to jump through hoops.” Not to mention the national contract that has expired for twenty years.
In short, the crisis is still there, even if all Italian theaters now have their accounts in balance, notes the president Anfols, the season of waste and privileges, he assures, “is now behind us”. Fortunately, even the worst of the pandemic seems to be over. The recovery, however, all the superintendents heard to date in the Chamber insist a little, must be supported: “2022 will still be a year of transition towards a new normality”, reiterates Giambrone. He asked the deputies that the measures adopted in recent months to support the sector be confirmed for next year, “Before 2024 it will be difficult to return to the proceeds of before the pandemic”. A request that in part seems to have been satisfied, with the institution in operation of the Set, the fund for temporary economic support for show business workers that the Draghi government has filled with 20 million euros for 2022 and then from 2023 with 40 million a year. Talking helps, the idea of theaters-bandwagon, still so widespread in the minds of politicians, so much so as to push the deputy Nitti to summon the whole world of foundations to Montecitorio (after the superintendents it will be the turn of the unions, the investigation should be closed by December) seems to be outdated.
Giambrone smiles: he also asked the deputies to restart from a pact of trust between politics, the government and theaters “we feel the responsibility of carrying out a public service. If we could feel not only controlled but also valued for what we can give to the country not only in terms of cultural growth also in terms of employment and development, social inclusion, territorial development .. well, I think it would be important for everyone “. (HANDLE).
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