The Establishment of Musical and Theatrical Institutions in the nineteenth Century Cultural Markets of the Levant: Early Stages and Socio-cultural Parameters

This paper aims to present the early stages and the socio-cultural parameters of the establishment of musical and theatrical institutions in the nineteenth century cultural markets of the Levant. Concerts, opera, ballet and theatre productions, balls, light musical theatre, were all instantiations of an urban civilization, linked to city public life, and bourgeois needs and habits. Above all, opera corresponded to the urban custom of evening entertainment, involving social interaction, amusement and spectacle. We shall therefore attempt to trace the trajectory of these musical genres within the more general trend for urbanization and westernization running through the huge area between the Adriatic Sea, the Black Sea, the Aegean archipelago and the Eastern Mediterranean.