"Pieces that reference an Opera Crisis date back a bit further," writes Jon Silpayamanant in the
latest post on his invaluable site. Indeed they do! Christoforo Ivanovich, in "Le memorie teatrali di Venezia," pessimistically surveys the state of opera in Venice: "Profits at the door, the basis of the business investment, instead of growing are diminishing, evidently endangering the continuation of this noble entertainment." This is from 1681. In a few years, this crisis will be as old as Elina Makropulos. (Quoted from Ellen Rosand's splendid
Opera in Seventeenth-century Venice.)
