Works

Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (2005)

D’après Claudio Monteverdi

Battistelli approached the man he regards as a putative father, in addition to being the father of musical theatre, with the utmost respect: Claudio Monteverdi. The mysterious and fanciful game of timbres in the introduction to the Battle forebodes the deeply impenetrable feelings shouted in the “coup de theatre” finale unveiling the beloved Clorinda who has been mortally wounded by Tancredi.  Comparisons to the original 1624 opera are deployed with seemingly invisible retouches to the orchestration. Slight harmonic and rhythmic variations delicately modernize the story. Rhythm and blues arrangements in a continuous bass line (Hammond organ, bass, and slide guitar) produce a clearer depiction of modern times. The meeting of two very different musical worlds juxtaposed in a double set of instruments (acoustic strings and electric band), generate harmonic refractions between distant eras bridged by a story of eternal love that has been updated to a plausible contemporary tale by using urban sounds in the background and by staging the battle scene with athletic movements carried out by the intrepid protagonists.


First performance:
Ravello Festival, Villa Rufolo, 30 July 2005
Ensemble Ravello Festival
Roberto Abbondanza (The Text)
Cristina Zavalloni (Clorinda)
Lorenzo Carola (Tancredi)
Erasmo Gaudiomonte, conductor 
Mario Martone, director
Alvise Vidolin, live electronics

Characters:
Tancredi, t
Clorinda, s
The Text, t perc (1 esec)
[È prevista una regia del suono: organico vocale  e strumentale con amplificazione microfonica]

Duration: 35’  

Score number catalogue Ricordi: (139493)