El otoño del patriarca (2003)
Oper in sechs Szenen nach Gabriel García Márquez. Libretto von Gotthart Kuppel
Drawn from the celebrated novel by Gabriel García Márquez, El otoño del patriarca is a big metaphor of the dictator figure: of the illusions and the irremediable solitude that a thirst for power creates around the tyrant. “I wanted to tackle an opera that would have a social significance”, says Battistelli, “because my impression is that in recent years contemporary music has been suffering from a certain aesthetic hedonism, having focused its attention mainly on language. My character has no political reference; it merely wishes to be the emblem of a social and political condition that concerns not only the culture of the Latin American countries. On the other hand, Márquez’s novel is a strongly emblematic and hermetic text, perhaps the most cryptic and at the same time the most visionary and surreal text belonging to the surrealism that is so strongly featured in South American literature.”
Correspondingly, and intentionally, surreal are the moods adopted by Battistelli in his opera. “Surreal, for example, is the decision to include in the orchestra a part of the patriarch’s body, his hernia, sung by a soprano. As is the Patriarch, a man without time, who arrives at the last scene only to realize that in fact he has come to the end of his earthly existence. He begins to converse with his double, who is none other than death. And the chorus gathered around him sings first in full voice, then shifts to a mezza voce and, after going through all the degrees of vocal emission, concludes the opera with an imperceptible whisper.” Divided into six scenes, the opera closes a distinct compositional phase of Battistelli’s career. “El otoño del patriarca is the parable of my composing technique, the seal of an idiom that has once again induced me to adopt the most varied stylistic features. A new path will now open up, though I still don’t know what direction it will take.”
Divided into six scenes, the opera brings a clearly defined phase of Battistelli’s compositional development to a close. “El otoño del patriarca represents the culmination of my writing technique, the final seal on a musical language that has led me, in this work as well, to adopt the widest variety of stylistic devices. A new path now opens before me, though I do not yet know what direction it will take.”
Year of composition
2003
Instrumentation
2.2.3.3. / 4.3.3.1. / 3 Perc, Sampler (also Cel) / Choir: (SCTB), Choir on tape: (SCTB), Children’s choir / Strings
Duration
1 hr(s)
Language
es
Commissioned by
Commissioned by the Bremer Theater
World premiere
06/06/2004
Ricordi catalogue number
139152
139152 – score
139153 – parts
139154 – reduction for voice & piano
139154 – choral parts