The Engagement Contract of a ‘trovarobe’: Toward a History of the Backstage

Abstract

More Than Contracts (1844-1900). Dossier edited by Mirella Schino. Includes contributions by: Livia Cavaglieri, Serena Sansoni, Mirella Schino, Giulia Taddeo

This Dossier, More Than Contracts (1844-1900), brings together a series of studies that differ considerably from one another, both in the types of contracts they examine and in the ways these documents can be used and related to other sources. They nevertheless share a common focus on the intermediate level of nineteenth-century theatre: the level that lies between the more immediately visible realm of events and the deeper realm of tradition, where change takes place only gradually. This is the level of theatrical organisation, economics, and social practices.

Within this framework, Giulia Taddeo, in The Impresario and the Dancer. On Two Documents Concerning Fanny Cerrito (1844-1845), analyses two agreements, dating back to 1845, entered into by the Romantic ballet diva Fanny Cerrito and the powerful impresario Alessandro Lanari: by comparing these contracts not only with those of the company set to support Cerrito, but also with a wide range of other sources such as box office statements, librettos, and correspondence, the paper aims to reflect on the bargaining power and working conditions of nineteenth-century dance artists.

Livia Cavaglieri (Roles, Benefit Nights, and Overseas Tours. A Note on the Theatrical Contracts in the Adelaide Ristori Archive) examines the corpus of theatrical contracts held in the Adelaide Ristori Archive at the Museo Biblioteca dell’Attore in Genoa, and discusses the management strategies of the Ristori-Capranica couple. The analysis is conducted through three core samples investigating the relationship between roles, fees, and benefit nights (beneficiate) of the contracted actors and, above all, the contracted actresses. Specific attention is also given to the clauses concerning foreign tours, for which the Drammatica Compagnia Italiana was an essential point of reference.

Mirella Schino (Contracts and Tears: Art and Theatre Craft in Late Nineteenth-Century Theatre. Cesare Rossi and the Young Eleonora Duse) examines the contracts drawn up by the impresario Cesare Rossi for his company in 1879, now preserved in the Biblioteca Federiciana in Fano. These contracts – particularly those of the leading actress Giacinta Pezzana and the second actress Eleonora Duse – are analysed from the perspective of theatrical craft: that is, the ensemble of practices and material conditions that, while not constituting artistic creation itself, sustain and make it possible. The essay explores, on the one hand, the actors’ economic circumstances as revealed by the contracts and the ways in which these could shape audiences’ trust or suspicion. On the other, it examines how established theatrical conventions – often formalised in the contracts themselves – from benefit nights to the à l’impromptu programming practices of nineteenth-century theatres, could be appropriated by actors as instruments serving specifically artistic purposes.

Serena Sansoni’s essay, The Engagement Contract of a trovarobe: Toward a History of the Backstage, examines the role of the trovarobe (the property master), a professional figure that has long appeared marginal within the nineteenth-century capocomico system (the actor-manager company), yet was in fact essential to its operation. By reconstructing the biography of the trovarobe Luigi Bergonzio and analysing his engagement contract for the 1899/1900 theatrical season, the essay brings to light the often overlooked but fundamental practices that underpinned nineteenth-century theatre. It highlights the significance of backstage labour and investigates the material conditions and interpersonal dynamics that shaped the everyday life of theatrical companies.