It is sometimes said that only three Italian opera houses reliably pay their bills: Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy’s premier opera house of long standing; Teatro La Fenice in Venice, a jewel rebuilt after a fire in 1996; and Teatro Regio Torino in Turin, an often overlooked theater in a northwestern industrial city with scant reputation as a tourist attraction.
For years, Turin was like Milan without the fashion or nightlife. That began to change with the 2006 Winter Olympics, which alerted the city to the value of tourism after the creation of sports facilities that could lure more tourists.
The next step, as described by Mayor Piero Fassino recently by telephone, was to promote culture, including opera at the Teatro Regio Torino. The theater, which dates back to 1740, was destroyed in a 1936 fire, and it reopened only in 1973 with a functional, if slightly garish, modern auditorium. Today, despite cuts in public funding, the company is on solid financial footing, thanks to increased revenues from private sources and ticket sales. And since 2007, when the conductor Gianandrea Noseda took over, its quality has risen to Italy’s highest level artistically.
The Teatro Regio Torino’s current good health is proof that an Italian opera house can flourish when the right conditions are in place.
“I would say it is almost the best in Italy, even before La Scala,” said Michel Franck, general director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, which has engaged the company for concert performances annually since 2011. “Noseda is one of the best conductors for Italian repertoire, and the casts he puts together are fantastic.”
The Teatro Regio Torino is also fortunate in its location. With brand names like Fiat, Ferrero Rocher, Lavazza and Eataly headquartered or prominent in the region, Turin has a strong business base, which redounds to the benefit of the theater.
Management is another factor that can make the difference between a successful opera house and one that struggles. The Teatro Regio Torino has long had a reputation for being well run financially. Its financial statements are even posted on the theater’s website.
Mr. Noseda’s presence as music director is fundamental to the positive image the Teatro Regio enjoys today. Mr. Fassino, the mayor, called him “the best music director at this time in Italy.”
With a solid international reputation following terms as music director of the BBC Philharmonic and as principal guest conductor of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, Mr. Noseda took up his post shortly before the worldwide economic crisis inflicted new troubles on Italy’s opera houses. But he had a strategy for increasing revenue, as he explained recently at an Italian restaurant in New York, where he was conducting a revival of Borodin’s “Prince Igor” at the Metropolitan Opera.
“It doesn’t work to ask for money and say you need it to improve quality,” he said. “Instead, you must improve quality first, and then the money will come.”
An initial step for Mr. Noseda was securing good relationships with the Teatro Regio’s union employees, especially the orchestra. “I had to get them on my side,” he said. “Talking to them about music is the secret to building their professionalism.” He performs a dozen concerts with the orchestra annually and has included it and the theater’s chorus in his recording activities. A flurry of retirements allowed him to handpick many new orchestra members.
A native of Milan, Mr. Noseda speaks with focused intensity about his achievements in the theater but also shows patricianlike discernment. And he has taken more than a few cues from Valery Gergiev, the artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theater, known for involving himself in all aspects of his theater’s activities. “I have learned from Valery — he is the best possible fund-raiser and one of the great artistic personalities of today,” Mr. Noseda said.
Through contacts with Turin’s business magnates, Mr. Noseda has won contributions from private donors and sponsors in the face of dwindling governmental support. It is part of his insistence that the Teatro Regio Torino compete aggressively on a global basis. “If you just try to preserve what you have,” he said, “the result will be slow euthanasia.”
He has brought in top directors like Robert Carsen, David McVicar, Graham Vick and Damiano Michieletto. And as Mr. Franck put it, “His casts may not have names like Netrebko or Gheorghiu, but they are extremely even, excellent from top to bottom.” Mr. Franck also admires his appetite for rediscovering neglected works from the Italian repertoire.
Mr. Noseda has also promoted a modest departure from the “stagione” system favored by Italian houses, whereby operas are presented successively in runs of several performances each, which makes it difficult for visitors to attend more than one opera. At the Teatro Regio, twice each season, for three weeks, two or three operas are presented, giving audiences a choice and bringing them in more often.
This kind of thinking has helped keep the Teatro Regio Torino strong financially. Despite a decline in the annual budget to 37 million euros, or $51 million, in 2012 from €47 million in 2007, largely due to decreased public funding and an attendant reduction of personnel, the number of performances actually rose to 110 in 2012 from 85 in 2005. Over roughly the same period, income from box office and other products went to €7.3 million in 2012 from €4.3 million in 2005.
International touring has also helped the theater polish its image. In addition to its annual appearances in Paris, under Mr. Noseda it has ventured to China, Japan, Germany and Spain. In December the company will present concert performances of Rossini’s final opera, “William Tell,” in four North American cities: New York; Toronto; Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chicago. This follows a fully staged production in Turin in May.
According to the theater, the tour will be the first time in living memory that an Italian opera company will tour North America with an opera. La Scala’s well-remembered visit to Washington, in 1976 was a residency, not a tour, Teatro Regio says, since the company performed operas only in Washington. Mr. Noseda said that he didn’t want to compete with the Met and, indeed, “William Tell” has not been performed there since 1931, though it is scheduled for a later season.
But whatever quibbles there may be over characterizing the La Scala visit, there is little doubt that the long and demanding “William Tell” will afford the Teatro Regio Torino the chance to show America what it can do.