Based on a novel by Dino Buzzati
Music by Francesco Rossi
Lyrics by Massimo Cadamuro
(The Secret of the Old Forest). The men of our age seem to have lost the enchanted dimension of living, those ancient links which bonded us for generations to the more spiritual aspects of life and which come from the breath of the earth and represent the mystery of existence. Nevertheless, our generation is the one that more than the others has been able to, or it is trying to, save the inner balances of the planet, it is the generation that pursues something far in the past and which despairs when the ghost of solitude and annihilation restlessly appears: our generation fears, more than the others, every kind of destruction because it knows that it could, perhaps, be the last chance of redemption.
Located in an unknown Dolomitic landscape, the novel was written by Buzzati in the first period after the Second World War, when the echoes of that dreadful catastrophe not only weren’t quietened, but instead were fed by the rhetoric of that age. This novel presents a world of peace and serenity that seems lost and forgotten; the characters’ disorientation is palpable: the young Benvenuto is forced to leave this fantastic world when, growing up, he has to face the harshness of adult age. Unlike him, old Sebastiano, a retired army colonel, rediscovers the connection with nature and altruism to the extent of sacrifice.
The rustle of the centenary woods and the evocative calls of the forest’s inhabitants have always driven artists to face Nature and its mysteries, to find themselves in it and to follow its inner spirit. Moreover, the music suggests sensitive affinities which go from the landscape, permeated of lights and shadows, to the metaphysical research of our own origin and identity. The colors of the forest, too, are transferred into the orchestra’s and voices’ melodies.
It is with this aim that that pieces from the well-known novel of Dino Buzzati have been chosen, thus interchanging the expressive reading to the melodies’ feelings. It is these feelings which underline the main themes and their correspondence to the fairy tale’s inner meaning.
listen:
ETERNI COMPLIMENTI
S’ADDORMENTA E SI RISVEGLIA
LA PROMESSA DEL VENTO
I RACCONTI DEL VENTO – flute solo
Organic:
Reciting Voice; ONE OF THE VALLEY BREEZE (Soprano), THE MAGPIE (M. Soprano), BENVENUTO (Contralto), MATTEO THE WIND (Bariton, Tenor, Soprano), THE SHADOW OF THE COLONEL (bass).
Four voices Choir
Flute, Violins I & II, Violas, Cellos, Basses , Piano