“All’opra, all’opra…” (Il Trovatore- 2,1): Work and Disease in Italian Operas

Most of the Italian greatest opera composers had studied and worked in Milan (Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo) as well as their librettists. Hence they had certainly been influenced by the frenetic and industrial activities of that city, one of the world major financial and business centers and the economic capital of Italy since the 18th century. So, it should come as no surprise that sounds and noises from the occupational environment can be found in the melodies and music of their compositions. In particular Romantic Italian operas, as expressions of the 19th century society, were not only popular shows, the audience being also composed of upper-class and more educated people. Therefore, these works could be considered as a crossing point between the popular and the intellectual world. They may provide with valuable information on the society of that time, on the concept and meaning of the work, on the workers’ health conditions and the progressive acknowledgment of work-related diseases in medical and popular opinion. We analyzed five tracks from Italian operas (“Il Trovatore”, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “La Fanciulla del West”, “Pagliacci”), which well testify working conditions in the 19th and early 20th centuries (e.g. the hard work of the gold miners, the noise of the forge) and disclose some classical occupational diseases and risks. Several of these conditions were later identified and treated for the first time just in Milan at the Clinica del Lavoro, inaugurated by Luigi Devoto (1864–1936) in 1910. Interestingly, modern work-related problems, such as stress and psychological disorders, may be also found. In conclusion of this work, some occupational risks in professional performers on the opera stage were analyzed, thus recalling that the stage is also a workplace and could contain harmful substances and stressors.