More than a fifth of the value of tickets sold in 2022 in Italy for live performances comes from opera, 84.5 million euros out of 384 collected. To buy them are 1.7 million spectators, 165% more than the previous year. The theaters' budgets have been back in the black for several years (from Scala's 694,000 euros profit to the Rome Opera's 194,000 euros), although public grants still play an important role: by 2022 they amount to 324 million euros. However, they are not non-returnable: beyond the cultural value of Italian opera, also recognized by UNESCO, which has just inscribed "the practice of opera singing in Italy" on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, there is a "multiplier" effect, which has positive impacts on the economy of the cities where the theaters are based. Some studies have even tried to measure it: "Every euro invested in opera returns between 2 and 2.5 euros to the community," according to Francesco Giambrone, Superintendent of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Social is a valuable support: a study conducted on Italy's 15 leading opera houses, and analyzing the "revolution" that took place between November 2019 and October 2021, the Sant'Anna Institute of Management and Linkfluence found that these theaters produced 12,300 official online contents, reaching 78 million people and achieving 3.14 million interactions. A small miracle, considering that very few had previously experienced opera on social media.
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