Italian religious music of the twentieth and early twenty-first century presents a “problematic” approach to the theme of the sacred. The aim of this contribution is to investigate how the “metaphysical question” is treated in a recent theatrical work by Alessandro Solbiati, Leggenda (2011), based on “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” introduced in the fifth book of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The complexity of the issues – intellectual, compositional, poetic, aesthetics - posed by such an audacious literary choice constituted a formidable “bench test” for Solbiati. The composer stages the “dialogical conflict” between Ivan and Aljòša Karamazov with a stratification of different dramatic and space-time layers, which conveys the unresolved ethical dilemmas of the Russian writer. At the same time he places the vastness of formal conception of the work and his linguistic complexity at the service of a rediscovered relationship with the listener and intertwines his own renewed link with “history” with the compositional rigour and the experimental and speculative attitudes typical of structuralism. In this play between research and memory lies Solbiati’s personal response to the post-Webernian avant-garde and the postmodern aesthetics of our age.
The “metaphysical question” in contemporary Italian Musical Theater. A case study: Leggenda by Alessandro Solbiati
SEMINARA
2023-01-01
Abstract
Italian religious music of the twentieth and early twenty-first century presents a “problematic” approach to the theme of the sacred. The aim of this contribution is to investigate how the “metaphysical question” is treated in a recent theatrical work by Alessandro Solbiati, Leggenda (2011), based on “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” introduced in the fifth book of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The complexity of the issues – intellectual, compositional, poetic, aesthetics - posed by such an audacious literary choice constituted a formidable “bench test” for Solbiati. The composer stages the “dialogical conflict” between Ivan and Aljòša Karamazov with a stratification of different dramatic and space-time layers, which conveys the unresolved ethical dilemmas of the Russian writer. At the same time he places the vastness of formal conception of the work and his linguistic complexity at the service of a rediscovered relationship with the listener and intertwines his own renewed link with “history” with the compositional rigour and the experimental and speculative attitudes typical of structuralism. In this play between research and memory lies Solbiati’s personal response to the post-Webernian avant-garde and the postmodern aesthetics of our age.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
