The Florence opera house to sell its vast archive to avoid closure

The Maggio Musicale in Florence may sell off its large archive in a desperate attempt to find €8.5m by July, part of a huge debt left behind after Alexander Pereira resigned last February. Without this sum the company – that has seen singers from Beniamino Gigli to Maria Callas to Cecilia Bartoli on its stages – risks closure, putting its 300-strong workforce out of work.

Pereira's letter of resignation said that he was resigning for personal reasons because he was “continually attacked from inside the theatre and from outside, especially by the press” and it had caused him to lose 20kg. However, Pereira – La Scala's former intendent – is under investigation by Florence's public prosecutor's office for expenses he had incurred and charged to the opera house – embezzlement. It relates to his use of a supplementary fund of €35m allocated by the government to tackle the foundation's €50m debt that has accumulated over the past 15 years.

The Novecento Museum and the Uffizi Galleries are said to be interested in acquiring the archive which contains works by Guttuso, Sironi and De Chirico.

The theatre has stated that “any proposal aimed at guaranteeing the very survival of the Foundation must be accepted and analysed with the utmost attention and a great sense of responsibility” while underlining the fact that “the historical and musical parts” of the archive are “two inseparable units, including the precious artistic works”. The theatre houses its archive in 1,000 sq metres with 2.5km of shelving.

The Maggio Historical Archive has a value estimated at €13m with 13,000 set and costume designs by some of the most important artists of the 20th century, as well as an important collection of costumes. There are more than 100,000; 1,000 posters, including 200 by famous artists; 300 set models; the complete collection of theatre programmes and over 5,300 scores.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.