Fat ladies slim down

On stage at the Rome Opera House, Madama Butterfly, soprano Raffaella Angeletti, is gazing into the eyes of her new American husband, Lieutenant Pinkerton (Marco Berti), unaware that the man pledging undying love in the duet Viene la sera is about to leave her pregnant and sail away.

The curtain falls to rapturous applause from a packed house. But offstage, a drama of emotion and betrayal as momentous as anything dreamt up by Puccini is engulfing the Rome Opera and all Italian opera houses: an emergency decree imposing spending cuts which opera lovers say could bring down the curtain permanently.

Silvio Berlusconi's government insists the cuts, part of a package of austerity measures, are necessary not only to help Italy survive the euro crisis but also to wean opera houses off their annual £220-million state subsidy and get rid of "absurd anomalies" such as payments to chorus members for having to sing in a foreign language or hold a sword.

Something must be done, ministers say, with opera houses running huge losses and crippled by industrial action. But for performers and legions of opera lovers, what is at stake is an art form that is a symbol of Italy throughout the world.

"The cuts violate the Italian constitution, which pledges to defend our cultural heritage," said Gianni Timpani, a tenor in the chorus.

The "Bondi decree", named after culture minister Sandro Bondi, would cut the earnings of Italy's 5500 opera musicians, stage hands and chorus members and place a moratorium on hiring new staff.

But the malaise goes beyond the latest round of cuts. Opera remains part of Italy's DNA, as the reaction to Luciano Pavarotti's death three years ago showed, with his arias pouring from every window and car stereo.

Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera, says the problem is not that Italians have fallen out of love with the art form, it is "that they are often bored, which is worse. Sometimes it feels more like a funeral parlour than an opera house, the exchange of energies at the heart of opera is not there. If there is no life on the stage there is no life in the audience."