Rather Classical
Silvia Colasanti's 'La Metamorfosi',
experienced by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
A new generation of Italian composers is emerging, even though their
works seem to be appreciated abroad more than in the home country. For instance, La Ciociara by Marco
Tutino is scheduled to open the San Francisco season and his previous work Senso [For King, Country and Sex, 5 February 2011] has had a successful debut in Palermo and is now in the Warsaw National Opera House repertory but has not been shown in other
Italian theatres. An exception may be La Metamorfosi
('Metamorphosis') by the young Italian composer Silvia Colasanti (born in 1974), a professor at the Perugia Conservatory and already well-known in Italy as well as in other European countries, in the USA and in Asia.
La Metamorfosi has the qualities to appeal to an international audience and has had a very good reception in Italy. It
was a commission by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival where the 'opera on human loneliness in three parts', as it is
subtitled, had a few performances in 2012. It pleases critics and audience and it is back for a new and
larger round of performances. As the Florence opera house (with three different theatres) is gradually changing
from a 'season' system to a repertory or semi-repertory pattern (to increase
productivity and attract tourists), La Metamorfosi may very well
become a staple in the city and be exported to other relatively small
theatres. It is conceived for the Teatro Goldoni, a small (with some 450 seats including boxes
and upper tier) and very classy opera house, but with a deep stage. I saw and
heard La Metarmofosi at the 7 March 2014 preview.
Roberto Abbondanza as the father and Fabrizio Pezzoni as Gregorio in Silvia
Colasanti's 'La Metamorfosi' at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2014 Marco Borrelli. Click
on the image for higher resolution
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The opera is based on Franz
Kafka's Die Verwandlung, also sometimes translated as 'The
Transformation'), a short novel first published in 1915. It has been cited as one of the twentieth century's seminal works of fiction, and is studied in colleges and universities
across the Western world. French writers such as Camus and Sartre considered it as a
major source of inspiration. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregory
Samsa, waking to find himself transformed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous
insect-like creature. The cause of Samsa's transformation is never revealed,
and Kafka never did give an explanation. The rest of Kafka's novella deals with
Gregory's attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being
burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repulsed by the horrible,
wormy creature Gregory has become. He loses, of course, his job, and this
causes him great suffering because he was the only income
earner in the family. His parents transform their Prague home into a Bed & Breakfast, but lose all
their clients when Gregory crawls into the living room because he is attracted
by the music. Eventually, the family locks him up in his room and feeds him on
a tray. Desperate, Gregory stops eating and dies; the servant dumps his body in
the trash can. And the family returns to 'normal'
life.
Laura Catrani as the mother and Fabrizio Pezzoni as Gregorio in Silvia
Colasanti's 'La Metamorfosi' at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2014 Marco Borrelli. Click
on the image for higher resolution
|
Colasanti's one act ninety
minute opera follows Kafka's novella on a libretto by Pier'Alli (also stage director and author of sets, costumes, and video) quite closely, but the mood and the message are quite different. In
Kafka's text the dominant theme is sorrow for Gregory's increasing social exclusion — even by his own family. In
Colasanti's work the main element is pity for Gregory and also for the sample of
humanity around him.
Michael Leibumgut as a guest, Roberto Abbondanza as the father, Roberto
Jachini Virgili as a guest, Daniele Zanfardino as a guest, Tiziana Tramonti
as the maid, Laura Catrani as the mother and a solo violinist in Silvia
Colasanti's 'La Metamorfosi' at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo
© 2014 Marco Borrelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
|
The opera is organized in a
rather classical manner. There is very rich orchestration with quite deep intermezzi
between the various scenes. The orchestral writing reminds me of Léos Janácek's expressionism: the alternation and
reiteration of different and contradictory musical fragments with lyric outbursts only in certain emotional moments. An important feature is that while Janácek calls
for a full fledged operatic orchestra, Silvia Colasanti provides great sound with only a dozen players in the pit, plus electronic amplification of a
distant small chorus. The vocal writing is declamatory, sliding
into arioso, duets, trios and even a concertato. The musical direction is well entrusted to Marco Angius,
a specialist of contemporary opera.
A scene from Silvia Colasanti's 'La Metamorfosi' at Teatro del Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino. Photo ©
2014 Marco Borrelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
|
The stage set is a foggy
Prague, with a claustrophobic grey home and abstract videos. The singers are also good actors, especially Roberto Abbondanza (the father) and Laura Catrani (the mother). The role of
Gregory is played by an actor, Edoardo Lomazzi, a dancer/acrobat, Fabrizio
Pezzoni and the small amplified chorus; Gregory speaks through the actor, sings
through the chorus and crawls on the floor courtesy of the dancer/acrobat.
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