Alla conquista dell’alta borghesia: le riforme di Eliza Vestris tra riscatto sociale e innovazione artistica

Abstract

This essay aims to examine the art and business strategy of Lucy Elizabeth Vestris, an actress and manager active on the London stage in the first half of the nineteenth century. It highlights, on the one hand, how Vestris, once she had embarked on her managerial career, pursued a targeted management strategy aimed at “winning back” the upper-middle-class audience, which had become disenchanted with the theatre and was far more interested in opera; on the other hand, through the reconstruction of the artistic practices implemented primarily at the Olympic Theatre and Covent Garden, it is shown that her ‘reconquest’ of the upper middle class was also achieved approaching production as a modern director, creating performances of the highest quality and aesthetic consistency.