Speaker: Nicolò Palazzetti

Opera enthusiasts are often labeled as ‘obsessive’ and ‘maniacal’, yet their significance has been largely overlooked by musicologists. While a comprehensive history of opera fandom is lacking, fan practices continue to evolve. Recent scholarly efforts have explored the digital diffusion of opera, with fan communities gaining recognition in popular music studies, sound studies, and theatre studies. However, opera fandom remains under-examined.

In his research, Nicolò Palazzetti employs a qualitative and comparative methodology, emphasising the importance of digital ethnographies of social media combined with on-site participant observation at various opera houses. His primary focus is Teatro alla Scala in Milan, while offering insights into other venues such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.

Fandom plays a role in processes of identity formation, in fostering alternative modes of socialisation, in challenging or conserving operatic repertoires, and in influencing media and marketing strategies. Furthermore, distinct patterns of social interaction among fans contribute to the development of new cultural products within fan communities, united by shared passion. The internet has reinforced these communities, facilitating networked fandom through discussions on social media groups, the circulation of memes, and other rituals of active engagement both online and offline (e.g. queues, autograph hunting, and even cosplay and fan fiction). Fan participation can occasionally involve forms of socio-political activism: a theatregoer shouting ‘Viva l’Italia antifascista!’ (‘Long live anti-fascist Italy!’) after the performance of the national anthem at the opening night of La Scala’s season on 7 December 2023 sparked a nationwide political debate just hours after opera singing in Italy was listed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

As this talk argues, the study of opera fandom is essential for reexamining the legacy of this centuries-old practice and exploring its potential futures during a time of significant change for live performing arts.

Nicolò Palazzetti is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in musicology and theatre studies at La Sapienza University of Rome, where he also lectures on music sociology. His expertise encompasses twentieth-century music, music and politics, as well as opera, audience studies, and digital cultures. Among his publications is the monograph Béla Bartók in Italy: The Politics of Myth-Making (The Boydell Press, 2021). Nicolò earned his Ph.D. from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, in 2017. Before joining La Sapienza in 2021, he served as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham (2017-18) and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Strasbourg (2019-21). Nicolò has been a visiting scholar at Yale University (2023) and at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (2024).