Visionary Creation in Music and Vision 18 giugno

Visionary Creation

Alessandro Solbiati's 'Il Suono Giallo',
enjoyed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

It is not generally known that painter Wassily Kandisky (1866-1944) was also the author of 'color-dramas', conceived as Gesamkunstwerk, a 'total work of art' where words, music, singing, ballet and mime all converged to a single message or theme. Il Suono Giallo ('Der Gelbe Klang') was written in German in 1909 in Berlin and published in 1912 but was never staged during Kandisky's lifetime; a much awaited Munich production in 1914 was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War I. Only in the nineteen seventies was it finally performed, mostly in United States experimental theatres (the Guggenheim Museum and Marymount Manhattan Theatre). Then it was staged in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and has since been staged at the Altes Opera, Frankfurt am Main, the Theatre im National in Bern, and at the NIA Centre, Manchester. Different musical scores were used, as the original score (by Thomas de Hartmann) had been lost. The American productions used music by Gunther Schuller; the French productions, various pieces by Anton Webern; the Russian and Swiss productions an especially commissioned score by Alfred Schnittke. The other 'color-tone-dramas' by Kandisky, titled The Green Sound, Black and White and Violet, were not even published and most records about them are lost. They were part of a larger trend of that period which addressed color theory in works which blended multiple art forms and media. Scriabin's Prometeus (1910) is among the best known of such works; they utilized lighting techniques and other innovations to extend the normal range of artistic expression. Kandinsky had published an essay on his own theory on color and creative arts in general.
This introduction is essential to understand why the Teatro Comunale di Bologna commissioned Il Suono Giallo ('The Yellow Sound') from composer Alessandro Solbiati. Some four years ago, I reviewed his previous opera Leggenda based on a section of Dostoyevsky's Karamazov Brothers (The Great Inquisitor, 28 September 2011). Solbiati worked very closely with stage director Franco Ripa di Meana because Kandisky's text is not a libretto. There is no plot but a visionary interpretation of the process of artistic creation. Luckily, Solbiati and Ripa di Meana found, almost by chance, a notebook of Kandisky's explaining the most cryptic aspects of the text.

Laura Catrani in Scene I of Alessandro Solbiati's 'Il Suono Giallo' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2015 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

The opera is a one-act eighty-minute-long work, divided into a prologue, six scenes and an epilogue. The libretto merges Kandisly's original text with some sections taken from the notebook. As there is no plot, the singers (soprano Alda Caiello, mezzo Laura Catrani, tenor Paolo Antognetti, baritone Maurizio Leoni and bass Nicholas Irshewood) are essentially visions during a process of artistic creation. In two scenes, they become giants — similar to the images of a few US Presidents in Mount Rushmore Park. Only in the fourth scene is there a simple dramatic action — a child (the soprano) sounds a bell and is promptly taken away by an adult (the tenor). Following Kandinsky's own indication, in this scene, there is no orchestra, but a string quartet and oboes. Marco Angius conducts a large symphony-like orchestra; unlike Solbiati's 2011 opera, there is no live electronics. The orchestra, however, is set not only in the pit but also in the boxes, to provide stereophonic sounds.

Laura Catrani, Alda Caiello, Paolo Antognetti and Maurizio Leoni in Scene II of Alessandro Solbiati's 'Il Suono Giallo' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2015 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

Musically, Il Suono Giallo is essentially a symphonic and choral work. The scenes are separated by short intermezzi of ninety seconds to two minutes each. The choral part is very important. A 'grand chorus' is out of the scene (mostly in the front of the audience in the orchestra seats section). A small chorus is on stage as intermediary between the singers, the mimes and the actors.

Alda Caiello, Paolo Antognetti and chorus in Scene IV of Alessandro Solbiati's 'Il Suono Giallo' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2015 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

Although there is no plot, the meaning is quite clear: in his visionary creation process, the artist gets his inspiration internally, as love and sex stimulate his creativity.

Chorus and mimes in Scene V of Alessandro Solbiati's 'Il Suono Giallo' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2015 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

Franco Ripa di Meana's stage direction deserves a special mention, making Il Suono Giallo understandable and blending Kandisky's painting with music and abstract action.

Two mimes in Scene V of Alessandro Solbiati's 'Il Suono Giallo' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2015 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

It is, indeed, a very interesting piece of contemporary music. However, at the 14 June 2015 Sunday matinee, only the orchestra seats and a few boxes were full. The creators, conductor, and chorus master (Andrea Faidutti) were warmly applauded, but only by those few contemporary music lovers, including this reviewer.

Copyright © 18 June 2015 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy