Prometeo: Tragedia dell'ascolto - Nono, Luigi 1924-1990; Richard, André 1944-; Mazzolini, Marco; Nielinger-Vakil, Carola 1966- (Milan Ricordi, 2017)
Score + Notes on Performance
Prometeo (Prometheus) by Luigi Nono was written between 1981 and 1984 and revised in 1985. Nono labels Prometeo a "tragedia dell'ascolto", a tragedy of listening. Objectively it can be considered a sequence of nine cantatas, the longest lasting 23 minutes. The Italian libretto, by Massimo Cacciari, selects from texts by such varied authors as Aeschylus, Walter Benjamin and Rainer Maria Rilke and presents the different versions of the myth of Prometheus without telling any version literally.
Prometeo in its final form (1985) is scored for: 5 vocal soloists (2 sopranos, 2 altos, 1 tenor), 2 speakers (one male, one female), choir (12 singers), 4 orchestral groups, each consisting of: flute/piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, 4 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 7 glasses, 6 instrumental soloists: bass flute/piccolo/C flute, contrabass clarinet/clarinet in B♭/clarinet in E♭, trombone/tuba/euphonium, viola, cello, double bass, 2 conductors. Sounds from the vocalists and instrumentalists are electronically manipulated.The duration of the final version is given as 135 minutes.
Testi a cura di Massimo Cacciari, da Eschilo, Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Hölderlin e altri
Keywords: 20th Century (1901-2000); Cantata