Patronage and Market in the Creation of Opera Before the Institution of Intellectual Property

Have different methods of financing the performing arts had an effect on thequality or diversity of thestock of works to be performed? This paper contrasts experience in the HolyRoman Empire and Italyfrom the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century when copyright lawsbegan to play a major rolein the economics of composition. The period 1751–1790 strongly confirmshypotheses that patron-drivenopera would be expected to be qualitatively superior to market-driven opera. Italian experience from1810–1840, however, suggests that this result cannot be generalized. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001