The Etymology of Impresario
Impresario reached English in 1746 with the wave of Italian opera that swept London in the 18th century. The Italian word is built on impresa, an undertaking or enterprise, ultimately from the Latin verb prehendere — to grasp, seize, take in hand — with the prefix in- (into, on). To undertake something was to grasp it on. An impresario, then, is one who has taken a venture in hand: the manager who finds the singers, hires the theatre, prints the libretti, settles the bills, and makes a production happen. In 18th- and 19th-century opera, impresarios were powerful figures — Domenico Barbaja in Naples, Bartolomeo Merelli in Milan, Domenico Crivelli in London — capable of making or breaking composers and prima donnas. English broadened the term to cover concert organisers, festival directors, theatrical producers, and eventually any flamboyant manager of public entertainment. Latin prehendere has been remarkably productive: the same root gives us apprehend, comprehend, prehensile, prison, and prize. Italian impresa and English enterprise are the same word, on the same principle.