Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore. I.

Sometimes it is worth traveling.
By doing so, it is also time to think of one's own cultural background and affinities.
I have discovered life and culture in a very special boarding school (Ecole Normale) with some teachers who were young adults during World War II and very naturally taught values of self guidance and suspicion of all the far-right devilish temptations after the end of the war.
From now on,I have always been very cautious and that is why I am appalled by what is happening on the French political scene now, where the possible regaining of some 3 million supporters from the far-right is pushing the traditional right into dreadful kinds of compromising attitudes.
It is then a great chance to escape for a while this kind of filthy political duck pond and explore Luigi Nono 'Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore' before attending it in Berlin soon.
It is strange I will travel to Berlin (for the third time in three years) for a very special opera which means a lot to me, precisely linked to my background and this post war education.
Why isn't it possible to have this Nono's opera on stage in France?
Any one, slightly aware of what is going on at the ONP at the moment, will find answers: France is being culturally wiped out of the creativity front -page, following old-fashioned opera trends, which comfort bourgeois attitudes and pleasures.
After Monsieur Mortier's departure to Madrid opera House, it seems impossible to get any type of modern operas. Le Châtelet is producing Nixon in China in April, which I will not miss, ( marvellous opportunity to welcome again two singers I appreciate : June Anderson and Sumi Jo ) but this is not the prestigious ONP,is it?. Even out of Paris, when there are creations, they always seem to be very tame, like 'La chartreuse de Parme'(Henri sauguet) I will attend in Marseille on Sunday.
Luigi Nono's Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore is a vast historical fresco of heroïc women who fought for freedom and utopian values. It is a good opportunity to go back on these figures of the past and present, to have a revival of their struggles and ideals through revolutions (I will check while reading the texts Luigi Nono selected and wrote if there are hints to the Chilean Revolution in this work) Louise Michel is one of them. Well known as a Paris underground station for the reminder of her name, she is la pasoniara de la Commune de Paris and had connections through letter- writings with Clemenceau and Victor Hugo. She had an eventful life often spent in prisons and deportation. She died in Marseilles in 1901 while she was on a conference tour. Rimbaud who is quoted in the title of this opera,(the poem 'les mains de Jeanne-Marie 'gave part of the title of this musical opus ) also stopped in Marseilles before he died. He was treated at Marseilles hospital: La Conception.
Here are some quotes from the opera site:
»Basically this opera is a grand requiem for lost hopes and the failure of utopias – and along with ‘Wozzeck’ by Alban Berg and ‘Die Soldaten’ by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, one of the major works of modern musical theatre.« (Jürgen Flimm)

Fighting, suffering and women perishing in revolutionary times are the subject of Luigi Nono’s ambitious scenic action which, as an ‘azione scenica’, has long surpassed the notion of ‘opera’, as did his work »Intolleranza 1960«. The action focuses on women activists; Louise Michel at the time of the Paris Commune in 1871, on Gorky’s Mother during the Russian Revolution of 1905, on the Bolivian freedom fighter Tania Bunke and the guerrilla war in Latin America, on Haydée Santamarìa and the character of the lady of the night, Deola, during the industrial unrest in Turin in the 1950s. A collage of different settings, separated in time and space, do not make »Al gran sole carico d’amore« a work with a coherent plot, but rather work to put the different stories of their revolutionary female characters on the stage.

AL GRAN SOLE CARICO D'AMORE staged by Katie Mitchell and with Ingo Metzmacher as the musical director will now be presented in a one-off series of five performances in the Kraftwerk Mitte | Trafo.


Extraordinary locations for the performance of his works were what Luigi Nono had in mind. This impressive building on the river Spree is an imposing structure which is a symbol of 1960s industrial history in Berlin. It has been established as an event location and a showroom for contemporary art for quite a while now. Boasting eight levels which are connected by staircases and intermediate storeys, it provides an optimum setting full of atmosphere for »Al gran sole carico d'amore«.

»This extraordinary play, visually a multi-tasking entertainment experience whilst at the same time an opulent culinary feast, radiates brilliance under its musical director Ingo Metzmacher – equally thrilling and cool.« (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

»Al gran sole carico d'amore staged by Katie Mitchell is a production which may be best described as simply sensational.« (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

I have admired Luigi Nono and his absolute human commitment all his life to the values of Communism and his equal commitment to complete art,
his music, and sound research. I do not know this work. I am not a specialist either. Therefore I have so much to discover.
Anytime I have listened to Prometeo I have been fascinated and overwhelmed by the immensity of this music, which is a unique experience. I will be able to listen to it live soon.
I have ordered the only recording from Teldec and am eager to listen to it and read the numerous texts which form the libretto, although Luigi Nono never claimed this work was an opera, he called it 'azione scenica'(action on stage, activity, happening,). It is the only recording I could find. Yesterday I went to Aix to borrow Luigi Nono's records, but due to low temperatures and lack of heating, the library was closed. I am then exploring the net, and it is rewarding!

Link Salzburg Festival
Within a fairly short time, the record will arrive from Germany and I will have time to get ready for the performance in Berlin on March the 1st.
Prometeo LINK Many thanks to MrRaph87 for this tremendous upload of this work.