IRTEM – Istituto di Ricerca per il Teatro Musicale

Founded in Rome in 1984, Irtem is a non-profit, publicly financed institute which aims at creating a research centre in the fields of musical theatre, 20th-century music and ethnomusicology. For this purpose the Institute has created two archives which are open for consultation by scholars, students, and music lovers: a sound archive which covers the areas of 20th-century music and ethnomusicology, and a video archive constituted by musical theatre documents. These archives are complemented by a collection of 20th-century scores as well as a considerable number of programme-booklets from all major Italian and foreign theatres. A prominent role is played by specific research carried out in the field of the relations between music and media, with a special emphasis on musical theatre in all of its aspects (opera, ballet, musical comedy, etc.).