To celebrate the centenary of the birth of the Venetian composer, the Venice Biennale presents the restaging of “Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto” in the Church of San Lorenzo, the setting of the original performance in 1984
The Venice Biennale celebrates the hundred years since local composer Luigi Nono’s birth (January 29, 1924) with a new staging of Nono’s opera Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto. Once produced by Biennale Musica in 1984, the piece will be performed on January 26 to 29 at the San Lorenzo Church. The first execution of the Prometeo was a memorable event that saw the participation of conductor Claudio Abbado and of artist Emilio Vedova and architect Renzo Piano for the staging. Philosopher Massimo Cacciari worked on the libretto, and Hans Peter Haller and Alvise Vidolin curated sound direction.
The opera has been staged elsewhere, too, and for the first time now it is back to the place it premiered, the San Lorenzo Church, thanks to Fundación Thyssen—Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21). The new, special staging is the result of the concerted effort by the Biennale’s Historical Archive and the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono. Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto is part of an ongoing project on Nono and other contemporary artists who worked with the Biennale. Luigi Nono thought it was about time to set opera free from the constraints of image and narration, focusing instead on the relationship between time and space, once penalized by ingrained common practices in traditional theatres and concert halls. What Renzo Piano created for the Venetian premiere of the Prometeo is a special place that makes it possible to use different ways to spread sound spatially and liberate the listening experience. We will be looking at a non-scenography, a kind of architectural device built to match the needs of the music and of the listening experience.
