A Special Project of the Historical Archive for the centennial of the birth of Luigi Nono

To celebrate the centennial of the birth of the great Venetian composer Luigi Nono (29 January 1924), La Biennale di Venezia presents a Special Project of the Historical Archive of the Contemporary Arts (ASAC) to revive the opera Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto by Luigi Nono produced by the Biennale Musica in 1984, which will be staged from January 26^th to 29^th 2024 in the Church of San Lorenzo, now TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space, where the original performance was held.

“A tragedy composed of sounds, with the complicity of a space” (Luigi Nono), the Prometeo which premiered in 1984 in the Church of San Lorenzo was a memorable event that in its creation and performance involved not only Luigi Nono, but also Claudio Abbado as the conductor, Emilio Vedova and Renzo Piano for the production design, Massimo Cacciari for the text, with sound direction by Hans Peter Haller and Alvise Vidolin. The work has been produced in several different versions over time, but none in the original venue, the Church of San Lorenzo, for which it was conceived.

The Special Project for this revival is a joint effort of the Historical Archive of La Biennale (ASAC) and the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono, which has reached an agreement with La Biennale di Venezia to transfer its materials to the International Research Centre on Contemporary Arts of La Biennale, currently under construction at the Arsenale. Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto is part of the process to enhance the transfer of the Luigi Nono Fonds, to be accompanied by a dedicated seminar.

Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto is part of the ASAC Special Projects, to establish a dialogue between the arts, of which the Archive is a powerful symbol, which La Biennale di Venezia undertook in 2020 with the exhibition The Disquieted Muses. La Biennale di Venezia meets History, organized at the Central Pavilion of the Giardini, and which it continued in 2022 with Archèus. Labirinto Mozart at Forte Marghera (Mestre) to present far-reaching cultural events that enhance memory and documents from the archives.

The revival of the opera Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto is produced by La Biennale di Venezia in collaboration with the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono and with TBA21–Academy, the research centre of the Fundación TBA21, which carried out the restoration of the Church of San Lorenzo.

“The collaboration with the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono and La Biennale – commented President Roberto Cicutto – takes on different meanings today. The great composer stays in Venice, the city in which he was responsible for memorable artistic actions, including the famous Prometeo. Here he will continue to dialogue with other great names of Italian and international culture, giving new impetus to the remarkable work begun by Nuria Schoenberg, her daughters and the many who have brought the Fondazione to life. This renewed collaboration will also amplify Luigi Nono’s artistic contribution and thinking, through new channels for study and dissemination, including the Historical Archive of the Contemporary Arts. It is pride and gratitude that La Biennale feels in undertaking this great adventure”.

“The Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono – stated his daughter Serena Nono, one of the founding partners of the Fondazione – is pleased with this new collaboration, in which La Biennale di Venezia revives the opera Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto by Luigi Nono in the Church of San Lorenzo, just like 40 years ago, on the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth, as a Special Project of the Historical Archive.”

“TBA21–Academy is very pleased to collaborate with La Biennale and the Fondazione Luigi Nono – explained Markus Reymann, Co-director of TBA21 – in reviving Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto in the Church of San Lorenzo, which we reopened to the public in 2019. Not only the historic location, but also the references to the Ocean and the archipelagos of the work, make this collaboration more than significant to celebrate the incredible talent and music of Luigi Nono”.

Luigi Nono believed that it was essential to seek to liberate opera from the bondage of image and narration, underscoring the importance of the relationship between sound and space, penalised by the customary performance modes in traditional concert halls and theatres. The venue conceived by Renzo Piano for the first performance in Venice of Prometeo was a very special one (and a special place it will become once again), which makes it possible to distribute the sound in the space in various ways which can free the listening experience. A non-set design, an architectural device built to satisfy specific musical requirements, with the intent to restore the space to the dimension of listening and the invisible quality of sound.

Text curated by Massimo Cacciari
Mise en scene/Production design Antonello Pocetti, Antonino Viola
Sopranos Rosaria Angotti, Livia Rado
Mezzosopranos Chiara Osella, Katarzyna Otczyk
Tenor Marco Rencinai
Speakers Sofia Pozdniakova, Jacopo Giacomoni 
Flutes Roberto Fabbriciani
Clarinets Roberta Gottardi
Tuba / Contralto trombone / Euphonium Giancarlo Schiaffini
Viola Carlo Lazari
Cello Michele Marco Rossi
Double Bass Emiliano Amadori
Coro del Friuli Venezia Giulia, conducted by M° Cristiano Dell’Oste
OPV - Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, conducted by M° Marco Angius with the assistance of M° Filippo Perocco
Live Electronics Alvise Vidolin, Nicola Bernardini, Luca Richelli - Centro di Sonologia Computazionale – DEI of the University of Padua
Duration 135’