The UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, has now added Italian opera singing to its intangible global heritage list. The decision, taken at a UNESCO meeting in Botswana, was hailed by Italy as an affirmation of opera’s global excellence.
From Scarlatti to Verdi, and Monteverdi, famous Italian opera tunes are sung worldwide, enhanced by notable performances such as those of the tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
UNESCO stressed that opera singing – passed on orally from teacher to student – promotes social cohesion and cultural memory. It also constitutes a medium for free expression and intergenerational dialogue, recognised both nationally and internationally.
A result of long, meticulous work
The singing technique, according to the UN institution, involves physiological control to strengthen one’s vocal power in acoustic spaces like auditoriums, arenas, and churches.
The acknowledgement of opera singing as part of humanity’s intangible heritage is a result of prolonged, meticulous work, Italy’s Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said in a statement.
It constitutes a formal recognition that “opera singing stands among globally recognised Italian excellences, representing us most effectively worldwide,” he said.
“Opera was born in Italy,” Frenchman Stéphane Lissner, Director of the world's oldest opera house, Teatro San Carlo in Naples (inaugurated in 1737), noted in a May 2022 interview with French news agency AFP.
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Asked why Italian opera deserved recognition as part of humanity’s intangible heritage more than its French or German counterparts, Lissner, who formerly managed Milan's prestigious Scala Opera, reasoned that singing in Italian stirs the greatest emotion among opera enthusiasts.
The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, meeting in Botswana from 4 to 9 December, is expected to authorise the addition of 55 new elements, presented as community traditions, including ceviche, loincloths and rickshaw painting.
