Constructing an artistic field as a political project: Lessons from La Scala

This article revisits the “high culture model” of Paul DiMaggio by taking as its empirical reference the experience of opera in Italy—particularly the history of one of the foremost institutions of the operatic world, the theater La Scala, from the late 1700s through the early 1900s. Five aspects are discussed as relevant for an understanding of opera in Italy: the imprinting effect of the court system, the heritage of the Risorgimento (i.e., the historical period in which national unity was gained in the 1800s), the ascension of the middle classes and the making of a working class, the role of professionals acting as cultural entrepreneurs with international links and careers (especially that of Arturo Toscanini), and the influence of mass political parties and regimes. By arguing that the construction of an institutional field of opera should be framed also as a project of extension of political control over civil society promoted by parties (Socialists) and regimes (Fascism), this articles sheds new comparative light on classification in art while also contributing a sociological explanation for the apparently ambivalent status of opera (in Italy and possibly elsewhere) as a genre that is both highbrow and popular.