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Casta Diva Project

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Digital Archive of Italian Conservatories of Music, Academies of Fine Arts, and Universities. Website created as part of the Casta Diva: An International Research and Production Digital Platform on Women in Italian Musical Theatre Project, funded by the European Union - Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 1, CUP: F31B23000450006.

Responsabile scientifico: Giovanni Albini

Istituzione Capofila: Conservatorio A. Vivaldi

Via Parma 1, 15121 Alessandria

+390131051500

Responsabile Scientifico Digital Hub: Paola Bertolone

Webmaster: ivan.paduano@uniroma1.it

Dipartimento PDTA Sapienza Università

Via Flaminia 72, 00197 Roma

+390649919006

The Voice of Women

at the Opera

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Casta Diva Project Digital Archive of Italian Conservatories of Music, Academies of Fine Arts, and Universities

Casta Diva is a two-year international project born from the collaboration of twelve Italian higher education institutions—including conservatories of music, fine arts academies, and universities—with the support of the European Union, funded through NextGenerationEU within the framework of the Italian PNRR. The project aims to highlight and promote worldwide the female figures who have shaped the history of Italian musical theatre: not only the great divas and leading performers on stage, but also composers, impresarias, costume designers, and many other essential contributors who, often unrecognized, worked behind the scenes. Its international activities include training programs, conferences, artistic productions, musicological research, and innovative paths in music therapy. Casta Diva is therefore conceived as a journey to rediscover the female legacy in Italian musical theatre, turning it into a driving force for cultural inspiration and innovation.

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Music Therapy

Music therapy is ‘the use of music and its elements of sound, rhythm, melody and harmony, in individual or group settings, within a defined process, to facilitate and promote communication, relationships, learning, motor skills, expression, organisation and other significant therapeutic aims, to meet physical, emotional, social and cognitive needs. Music therapy, therefore, intentionally employs music to promote changes in the quality of life for people with various challenges.” (Italian Ministerial Degree -D.M.2905/2021)

Music therapy is a specialized profession that uses structured musical interventions, based on scientific evidence from research and clinical practice. Music therapy interventions may include active and receptive methods, such as musical improvisation, guided listening, composition, instrumental and vocal performance, movement to music, and subsequent reflection on the experience. These practices are integrated within a process that considers the musical experience as an opportunity for expression, connection, communication and transformation.

As part of the Casta Diva project, various training and outreach initiatives related to music therapy were organized by the “A. Vivaldi” Conservatory in Alessandria, the “A. Scarlatti” Conservatory in Palermo, and the “Maderna-Lettimi” Conservatory in Cesena-Rimini. These initiatives were designed to explore and deepen the understanding of  the image of femininity and women in our society, with particular reference to repertoires linked to female figures in Italian musical theater.

The main objectives were:

●       To explore the image of women in society through dialogue with young people and the involvement of institutions (conservatoire students, schools, associations, cooperatives, hospitals).

●       To develop new music therapy projects to support women attending local centres and associations dealing with issues such as eating disorders, postpartum depression and oncology.

●       To organise training and research activities aimed at broadening the knowledge and skills of students on the two-year Music Therapy course at the Conservatories of Alessandria, Cesena and Palermo.

Certain themes represented through female characters in Italian opera are highly topical and remain present today in the complexity of young people’s and family relationships: ideal and real love, self-sacrificing maternal love, the difficulty of seeing oneself in a way different from that which society imposes on women or which a partner, in a dysfunctional relationship, seeks to impose. The use of female characters in opera arias provided an opportunity to discuss these stories, foster exchange and debate to encourage a shift in the various perceptions of the female self, and engage with the image projected from the outside. The symbolic, evocative and communicative potential conveyed by music and female arias formed the basis upon which the activities of the project were built.

The Conservatories of Alessandria and Palermo have organised various training initiatives aimed at students on MA Music Therapy, led by eminent music therapists and researchers on the international scene. Furthermore, the two conservatories carried out a multicentre music therapy research project involving the SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo University Hospital in Alessandria and the ARNAS Civic Hospital in Palermo. The pilot study, which marks the first time in Italy that the Conservatories of Alessandria and Palermo have collaborated closely with hospital trusts, involved women in the oncology wards of the hospitals in Alessandria and Palermo. The study, which began as early as October 2023, was carried out with extremely positive results and actively involved students from the MA Music Therapy engaged in internship and research activities. Opera excerpts dedicated to female characters were presented during the music therapy sessions.

The training for conservatoire students and the design of the scientific interventions were carried out in collaboration with the Doctoral Schools of Medicine at the University of Bari and the LUCA School of Arts – Music Therapy Department in Leuven (Belgium). A further aspect of the research concerns the presence and use of opera arias from the Italian repertoire by music therapists during receptive music therapy sessions at national and international levels. To this end, a survey was organised, in collaboration with PhD students, to gather information and data illustrating the presence of the repertoire relating to the opera arias used by music therapists.

The Cesena–Rimini Conservatoire has organised various training initiatives on the theme of ‘Healing the Wounded Feminine’ in music therapy, exploring the themes of gender identity, the voice and the therapeutic relationship mediated by music through listening and engagement with the symbolic dimension of the characters of opera protagonists, with their profound truth linked to the pains and strength of the feminine character. The initiatives, aimed at students on the MA Music Therapy and other academic programmes, involved Conservatory lecturers, music therapists, and renowned scholars and researchers. Particular attention was paid to the applications of music therapy in the field of oncology through participation in the “Donne all’Opera” in collaboration with the Sofis Music Association, and to the clinical research project by the Breast Unit and the Psycho-Oncology Service of the IRCCS Giovanni Paolo II Cancer Institute in Bari on the effects of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) in supporting women undergoing cancer treatment, with the contribution of specialist music therapists from the European Association of Music and Imagery. Developments in music therapy within the psychiatric field were also explored in depth, examining the relationship between emotions and mental health through historical research into the earliest applications of music in psychiatry in Italy and the cultural partnership between the psychiatrist Cesare Vigna, Director of the Women’s Mental Hospital in Venice, and Giuseppe Verdi. The research analysed the role of female characters in Verdi’s operas and their relationship with power and society.

The activities, experiences and study carried out by the three conservatoires have fostered an exchange of knowledge, particularly among music therapy students and PhD candidates, and a collaboration in the organisation of the International Research in Music Therapy and the Female Figure in Italian Opera (February 2026), held at the Conservatoire of Alessandria, during which all the themes related to the project were presented, with  paper presentations, workshops and discussions with internationally renowned music therapists on topics in music therapy research.

The various activities were presented by lecturers from the three conservatoires at various national and international conferences.
 

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Research activities in the context of the Casta Diva project focus on the female figure in Italian musical theatre, providing original insights through conferences, exhibitions, and dissemination materials. They are integrated with the project’s artistic production, also offering valuable resources for philological performance and teaching. Outputs include conference proceedings, publications, and critical editions