Riccardo Gualino: A Tycoon and Man of Letters «à rebours» under Fascism. International Suggestions, French Inspiration and Political Ambiguity, in Cristina Trinchero [con Nicoletta Betta], The Teatro di Torino (1925-1930): Synergy between Patronage and Music Criticism as a Means to Open a Window on Modernity under the Fascist Regime, in Music Criticism 1900-1950, edited by Jordi Ballester and Germán Gan Quesada, Turnhout, Brepols (“Music, Criticism & Politics”, 7), 2018, pp. 331-345.

The Teatro di Torino is an example of close, ideologically motivated collaboration among music critics, private patronage and cultural institutions. Founded by the Società degli Amici di Torino, a group of scholars and art lovers, financially sustained by the businessman Riccardo Gualino, the Theatre was the starting point of musicologist Guido M. Gatti’s career as a music impresario, before the foundation of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His purpose was to bring to Italy the artistic renewal which took place in Europe since the end of the 19th Century, with a music proposal polarised around two main themes: contemporary Italian and French music, the rediscovery of 18th Century repertoire. Stravinskij, Honegger and R.Strauss were executed; Vivaldi’s Le Stagioni were played again promoting a Vivaldi renaissance. Prose theatre was represented by directors such as Pitoëff, Copeau, Tairov, Pirandello and innovative companies from Paris and Moscow. Representatives of “free dance” were invited: Mary Wigman and the Jaques-Dalcroze school. As for new forms of art, an early representation of Brecht/Weill’s Threepennyopera was given. In 1929 a cycle of Rossini’s operas was held in Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; modern scenographies together with excellent performances originated a Rossini revival in France. The international communication strategy disseminated the Theatre fame throughout Europe, the US and Latin America, in more than 270 music journals and newspapers, and stimulated debates about the newest tendencies of music: new genres (jazz, spirituals), new technologies (Martenot), Surrealist and Dada movies (Man Ray, Painlevé), at the opposite of contemporary Fascist cultural policies. The story of this theatre is intertwined with the growth of Fascism, through the vicissitudes of Gualino’s life. Politically ambiguous, considered alternatively as Mussolini’s hidden financial consultant, or as a member of antifascist intelligentsia, he was exiled; this caused the interruption of his affairs and the closure of his Theatre.