Intolleranza 1960
Intolleranza 1960 (Intolerance 1960) is an opera by Luigi Nono, the composer's first in the genre. The year in the title refers to the time of origin - is an act in two parts - Azione scenica in due tempi - by Luigi Nono. The Italian libretto was written by Nono from an idea by Angelo Maria Ripellino[1], using documentary texts and poetry:Julius Fučík, "Reportage unter dem Strang geschrieben"[2], Henri Alleg, "La question (The Torture)", Jean-Paul Sartre's introduction to Alleg, Paul Eluard's poem "La liberté"[3] "Our march" by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Bertolt Brecht's "To Posterity". Luigi Nono's first work for the opera stage is a flaming protest against intolerance and oppression and the violation of human dignity. It was a work for the Venice Biennale in 1961, a commission issued by its director Mario Labroca. The first performance was conducted by Bruno Maderna on 13 April 1961 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The stage design was by the famous radical painter Emilio Vedova, a friend of Nono's. The premiere was disturbed by neo-fascists, who shouted during by the torture scene "Viva la policia". Nono's opponents accused him of poisoning Italian music. [4]
Nono himself said of this work that it "did mark a beginning for me, but in no sense did it constitute a tabula rasa or in response to 'divine inspiration'".[5] Nono revised the work into a one-act version for a 1974 performance.[6]
Fabrice Fitch has commented that this work has "no plot as such", but rather consists of a series of scenes that illustrate aspects of intolerance.[7]
Nono's Interpretation
Nono himself interpreted the testimony of his work as follows:
- "Intolleranza 1960" is the awakening of human awareness in a man who has rebelled against the demands of neccesity - an emigrant miner - and searches for a reason and a "human" base for life. After several experiences of intollerance and domination, he is beginning to rediscover human relations, between himself and others, when he is swept away in a flood with other people. There remains his certainty in "a time when one wants to be a help to you". Symbol? Report? Fantasy? All three, in a story of our time. [8]
Synopsis
The action of the opera concerns a refugee, who travels from the south of Italy looking for work. Along the way, he encounters protests, arrests and torture. He ends up in a concentration camp, where he experiences the gamut of human emotions. He reaches a river, and realises that everywhere is his home.
Part One
Coro iniziale, Instead of an overture, behind closed curtain, is heard a large-scale "a cappella"choral-- "Live and be vigilant" [9].
1st Scene: In a mining village
A guest worker (Emigrant) [10] the stranger in the Maloches mine is tired. It consumed him to return longing for his homeland, from which he once fled.
2nd Scene: A woman rushes in.
A woman who had given to the stranger in the mining village warmth and peace and love, tried to persuade him to stay. When she realizes that her lover is determined to go, she insults him and swears revenge. Nevertheless, she leaves the migrant.
3rd Scene: In a city
He has reached a city, as a large non-authorized peace demonstration is taking place. The police intervene and arrest some demonstrators, including the refugee, although he was not participating in the rally. His attempt to defend himself remains unsuccessful.
4th Scene: in a police station
Four police officers set to work, to force the prisoners to confess. The man, however, stands firm to his story that the way to his home is through the city and he had therefore nothing to confess.
5th Scene: The torture
All those arrested are brought to torture. The chorus of the tortured cries to the audience, whether it was deaf and would behave just like cattle in the pen of shame.
6th Scene: In a concentration camp
The chorus of prisoners desperately cries for freedom. The four policemen taunt their victims. The hero makes friends with another prisoner from Algeria. Together they plan to escape.
7th Scene: After the escape
He manages to escape with the Algerians from the concentration camp. While originally it had been only the wish of the emigrant to see his home, now only in his heart burns the desire for freedom.
Part Two
1st Scene: Some absurdities of contemporary life
From all sides voices press upon the hero, voices which not only disturb and confuse him, but almost overpower him. The absurdities of contemporary life, such as the bureaucracy - for example, "registration required", "Documents are the soul of the state", "certify, authenticate, notarize" - and sensational newspaper headlines like "mother of thirteen children was a man" increase, and the scene ends with a big explosion.
2nd Scene: a meeting between a refugee and his companion
A silent crowd suffers from the impression of the slogans and the explosion. When a woman begins to speak out against war and disaster, it appears to the emigrant as a source of hope in his solitude. Henceforth, the two want to fight together for a better world.
3rd Scene: Projections of episodes of terror and fanaticism
To the hero appears the woman he has left in the mining village, and confuses him. Together with his companion (compagna) he sends her away. Then the woman transforms herself along with a group of fanatics in ghosts and shadows. In the dream, she sees the migrant, the mine, the mocking slogan "Arbeit macht frei" over the entrance of the camp, and she sees the nightmares of the intolerance he holds with his companion, "Never, never again". The choir sings Mayakovsky's "Our march".
4th Scene: In the vicinity of a village on the banks of a great river
The hero has reached with his companion the great river, which forms the border of his native country. It is flooding, and its level increases more and more. The deluge swallows roads, broken bridges, barracks and crushed houses. Even the migrant and his companion are unable to save themselves. They die an agonizing death.
Coro finale, again without orchestral accompaniment, with excerpts from B. Brecht's poem "To Posterity".
Recording
- Teldec 4509 97304(2): Chorus of the Stuttgart State Opera; Stuttgart State Orchestra; Bernhard Kontarsky, conductor[6] [7]
References
- ^ Ripellino published "Mayakovsky and the Russian avant-garde theater" in 1959. The major arbitrator of Slavic literature in Italy (Stenzl wrote) is a comprehensive textbook for Intolleranza. There was a rift, as the libretto Nono massively cut, reworked and expanded. Jürg Stenzl, Luigi Nono, Rowohlt, Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1998, p. 53-58
- ^ Dietz, Berlin, 1948. F. Rausch, Translator
- ^ Nono used the verses 7, 8, 4, 16, 19
- ^ Matthew Boyden, Nick Kimberley, Joe Staines: The Rough Guide to Opera, Rough Guides, 3 Edition, 2002, p. 550
- ^ Irvine, John (1999). "Luigi Nono's Canti di vita e d'amore: new phases of development 1960-62" (PDF). Contemporary Music Review. 18 (2): 87–109. doi:10.1080/07494469900640201. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
- ^ a b Hodges, Nicolas, "Record Review" of Luigi Nono's Intolleranza 1960 and Prometeo (July 1996). Tempo (New Ser.), 197: pp. 50-51.
- ^ a b Fitch, Fabrice, "Reviews: Luigi Nono" (CD reviews) (1995). The Musical Times, 136 (1829): p. 366.
- ^ According to the booklet of the CD "Intolleranza", Teldec 4509-97304-2, p. 10, quoted by Raymond Fearn: Italian Opera Since 1945, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1998, p. 79 and 80
- ^ AM Ripellinos poem Vivere e stare svegli (Live and be vigilant). AMR, un giorno ma non adesso, Grafica, Rome, 1960. See Luigi Nono, Some more information about "Intolleranza 1960" (originally 1962), Luigi Nono, texts, studies of his music, Jürg Stenzl (Eds.), Atlantis, Zurich, Freuburg, 1975, p. 68-81, here p. 70
- ^ Alfred Andersch translated in the German edition of score, but not in his draft "refugee" as "emigrants". Luigi Nono, texts, studies of his music, Jürg Stenzl (Eds.), Atlantis, Zurich, 1975, LN (1962), some more detailed instructions to "Intolleranza 1960", p. 69, [Note] 1
