FULL IL 3001 (Voris Sarris) Castell’Arquato 2023 Marta Leung, Raffaele Feo, Lorenzo Liberali, Giacomo Pieracci
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: IL 3001
- Composer: Sarris Voris
- Libretto: Luigi Illica, reworked and integrated by Lisa Capaccioli
- Venue & Opera Company: Monumental Square, Castell'Arquato, Italy, Festival Illica
- Recorded: July 2023
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Marta Leung, Raffaele Feo, Lorenzo Liberali, Giacomo Pieracci, Alessandra Palomba, Bronisława Sobierajska, Marianna Petrecca, Rumiana Petrova, Virginia Aurora Barchi, Yiying Guo, Giovanna Falco
- Conductor: Riccardo Bianchi
- Orchestra: Orchestra: Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
- Chorus: Festival Illica
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: voris sarris
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Under the artistic direction of Jacopo Brusa the Illica Festival of Castell’Arquato is experiencing a rebirth especially as regards the informative quality of the choices made: last year the revival of “Le Maschere” by Mascagni, this year even two projects, the first of which is decidedly courageous – setting the most original libretto to music ( unfinished, however) by Luigi Illica, “ Il 3001”, which can rightly be considered the first and only attempt at a science fiction work (composed around 1908). The subject of this bizarre little book, however, is not so bizarre, on the contrary, it prefigures the dystopian futures of Zamyatin ( We , 1920) and Orwell ( One Thousand and Eighty-Four , 1948), fitting into the then highly original tradition of Butler ( Erehwon , 1870) and Morris ( Notizie from nowhere , 1890).
The absolute modernity of the subject probably decreed its abandonment and its never being set to music: today, however, an international competition has chosen the young Cypriot composer Voris Sarris to complete it and the dramaturg Lisa Capaccioli , charged with rearranging it into a a coherent and effective subject, much of Illichi’s material. Let’s say straight away that if Capaccioli’s intervention seems to have fully hit the mark, with the construction of an enjoyable libretto, full of action and well-constructed dialogues, Sarris’s composition seems half successful: if some moments present a enlightening orchestration, which allows irony or sentiment to emerge, in others we perceive a slightly too accentuated symphonism, to the detriment of the rhythm determined by the libretto. For the rest, however, the work presents a high level of usability, a rich and expressive concertation, which mixes moments inspired by the composer’s Mediterranean roots with harmonious solutions more typical of the great works written by Illica – a certain post-romantic and realist inspiration.
The story, as anticipated, is that of a dystopian humanity “equalized” by a college of judges (Le Cifre Supreme), charged with enforcing the activity of the Regulator, a device that is placed on everyone’s chest once they reach adulthood and which prevents contravening the rules of the “right” society. In this context, the love of 2 (the names are in fact replaced with numbers when the Regulator is applied) for Reginotta is wrong, because she is not the one that the spouses 9 (parents of 2) chose for their child. Placed on trial, the two young people will prefer to kill each other rather than see each other’s memories erased and vice versa. Unfortunately, however, this will not produce a revolutionary effect à la “Romeo and Juliet”: the Supreme Figures, seeing a riot arise, decide to erase all of humanity, which therefore forgets everything and ends up singing the praises of the Regulator, as all ‘start. The many vocal roles envisaged are characterized by arduous and at times postmodern writing – random lines, or written directly on the score.
Quoted from gbopera