Always caustic, Franco Zeffirelli went on the offensive at the Florence press conference for his production of Pagliacci @ Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. As soon as he was asked, what should the government do to help out Italian opera houses during this financial crisis?, Zeffirelli said:
«You can export music all over the world but this is not always understood. We should shut down the opera houses for a year and start again from scratch, initiate a new relationship with the citizenry. Politicians should get out the way, politicians have nothing to do with art and everything to do with power. Nothing to do with art. Theater, culture must thrive with the aid of private enterprise, what the government needs to do is repeal all taxes on the income of opera houses, and cut taxes for corporations that sponsor opera».
Maybe the Frengo Plan would work wonders, but given that Italian opera houses at the moment receive from the government a coll euro 199,566,815 (yes, that's almost 200 million euros, ie more than 255 million dollars) we're talking about a LOT of tax cutting here.
