Fierce invective against the domination of gold

Timon Études is a Suite from my opera Timon d'Atene, which is nearing completion and will be staged on 28 September at the Auditorium Niccolò Paganini. With the Teatro Regio di Parma, we decided to create a 'study' that musically anticipates the dramaturgical atmosphere. I wrote the libretto deriving it from Shakespeare's play, perhaps the most controversial, mysterious and modern of his productions. In these Études a core emerges that is incredibly close to us: a fierce invective against a world dominated by gold. The most striking component, as always in Shakespeare, is the ruthless lucidity with which he analyses the miserable condition of first cynicism and then nihilism of these human beings. With Timon the misanthrope in the lead.

As always, great themes of existence are treated with an unparalleled power of words and images. The music has the task of adhering to this expressive tension and elevating it to an even more dramatic and universal dimension. The protagonist has taken refuge along a wild coastline, repudiating all human presence with disgust. Much has happened before in wealthy, decadent Athens. He has been violently overwhelmed by corruption and betrayal. Now Timon no longer sings, he acts. And he is visited as in a sinister dream, a Fellini-like procession, by many Athenians from whom he had fled. These characters sing. An unsettling dialogue is formed between the recited word and the sung word. In addition, the 'speaking' Timon is immersed and contrasted with the musical power of the large orchestra and chorus.

His final judgement on society (which is already our own) becomes an unappealing attack on humanity as a whole, which has lost all empathy, generosity and capacity to love. Even the cynical philosopher Apemanthus, who used to flog the powerful in the wealthy Athenian courts, is here rendered speechless by Timon's radical hatred. Timon disappears into the waves. Is there no hope then? For the moment, the music ends on the political compromises of the leader Alcibiades: who, having deluded his people with the conquest of Athens, now throws down his arms and seizes power. Accepting that war and peace feed off each other.

Composer of Timon Études.