Works

Action music for the twilight of the family 

Libretto by Giorgio Battistelli
(freely adapted from Pietro Germi, Alfredo Giannetti, Ennio De Concini) 

Giorgio Battistelli pays tribute to Pietro Germi by writing the libretto and the music to an opera that narrates an image of Sicily in the 1950s. A crime of honour where passion, jealousy, and betrayal are portrayed in a grotesque, ironic and piercing score. The undeniable protagonists are the bourgeois and chauvinist clichés that depict Italian culture of days gone by. Amplified in this parody of the relationship between two Sicilian aristocratic families. The cast is made up exclusively of bass and baritones voices with the exception of Angela, the only woman around whom the romantic, psychological and social motor of the story runs. A disguised tragicomic opera depicting the backward reality of the matriarchal world of southern Italy. 

First performance:
Nancy, Opéra National de Lorraine, 30 September  2008  
Choeur de l’Opéra National de Lorraine
Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy
Daniel Kawka, conductor
David Pountney, director
Richard Hudson, sets and costumes
Fabrice Kebour, light design
Fettfilm – Momme Hinrichs -Torge Møller, video

Characters:
Don Sandrino Ferraù (nicknamed Fefè), t
Don Gaetano (his father), br
Donna Matilde (his mother), b
Donna Rosalia (his wife), br
Don Calogero Giacalone (Sandrino’s oncle), br
Donna Fifidda (Don Calogero’s wife), b
Angela (Calogero’s daughter), s leggero
Carmelo Patanè (painter), br
Immacolata Patanè (Carmelo’s wife), b
Felicetto (the barber), br
Dottor Talamone, br
Don Ciccio,  br
Cittadini di Barrafranca, mixed choir 

Instrumentation:
2 (II anche ott), 2 (II anche cl b), 2 (II anche cfg) / 4.2.2.1/ timp, perc (1 esec.), pf/tast, archi (12.10.8.6.4)

Duration: 90’

Score number catalogue Ricordi: (139996)

Reduction voice-piano: (139998)