This magnificent and controversial opera is performed here by vocal
soloists David Rampy and Urszula Koszut as refugees, among others, with
Chor der Staatsoper Stuttgart and Staatsorchester Stuttgart conducted by
Bernhard Kontarsky. Premiered as "Intolleranza 1960" and later revised
as "Intolleranza 1970," this is Nono's
first opera. Its premiere was an internationally reported scandal (even
Time magazine gave the event a full page) similar to that of other
groundbreaking works, with people attempting to shout down the musicians
and political leaflets raining from the upper balconies. Some of the
protest related to Nono's
membership in the Italian Communist party, and had little to do with
the opera itself. In fact, the text attacks segregation, the atomic
bomb, and Nazism, concluding with a plea to prevent civilization from
destruction. Like D.W. Griffith's famous movie epic of the same name
with its widely ranging historical periods, Nono's
opera journeys through a vast contemporary scene, drawing from European
history but applicable worldwide. The cast includes the two refugees as
well as demonstrators, police, Algerians, farmers, miners, torturers,
and fanatics. Additionally, a scene focusing on "some absurdities of
contemporary life" includes projections, voices, magnetic tape, and
mimes. The colorful and pointillistic
orchestral music is brilliant and dramatic, giving full rein to Nono's techniques of dividing and overlapping the text syllables to create new dimensions of meaning. Nono
has written that the opera concerns "the wakening of human awareness in
a man who has rebelled against the demands of necessity…and searches
for a reason and a 'human' basis for life." Although experiencing
intolerance and domination before being "swept away in a flood with
other people," he remains certain of "a time when man will be a help to
man." "Symbol? Reportage? Fantasy?" Nono asks. "All three, in a story of our time."
(Gene Tyranny)
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