Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore

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Free Music Notes for Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore

Free Music Review: Serial Humanism
Hit: 5 Stars

As has been stated so eloquently below, Nono's work isn't really an "opera" at all. The work has no straightforward dramatic structure. The text is carefully assembled from a variety of sources. The opera centers around the event of the 1870 Paris Commune and the 1905 Russian Revolution, but presented in an elliptical manner, with references to Che Guevara, Castro, Vietnam, Turin and other abortive revolutionary movements. As a result the work is more of a grand staged meditation on revolutionary courage and the sufferings of people, particularly women, who don't give up their ideals.

In many ways it seems to me that the work is really a Passion, but a Passion of the Common Person rather than a religious Passion. The chorus parts are strong. Soloists are presented against the choral background, rather than above it as in traditional opera. And the chorus itself becomes a character. Add to that the fact that single roles are sung by multiple singers and you get something that is much different than traditional opera. Even the structure of the text, with it's eyewitness excerpts and commentaries, reminds you of the structure of Bach's Passions.

Musically, the work is luminous. Nono is a serialist, but one who knows how to make music sing and make music dramatic. The piece is full of powerful moments. Much was made of the inclusion of worker's songs including the Internationale when the piece was premiered. The use of such straightforward tonal material in an avant-garde piece was against the grain at the time. After 25 years, this doesn't shock anymore. What does stay with you is how well integrated the tonal material is with the serial material. Nono uses similar procedures on the worker's songs as he uses on his tone rows. The result gells nicely. It does not have the pastische quality that quotations in Berio's Sinfonia have. Rather, it packs emotional punch.

Nono was always considered to be the most politically committed of the Darmstadt set of the 50s and 60s. (Though Xenakis certainly was as well.) This may explain why his music retains such a powerful impact. Where Boulez was looking for an almost mathematical approach to composition, and Stockhausen was alternatively a musical explorer and a mystic, Nono was motivated by deep love for people. As a result his music retains a humanity that is more readily apparent than in other Darmstadters. It certainly appeals to me.

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