SPE - PERFORMANCE AND EXHIBITION SPACE
H 19.30
12 MAY 2018
Homage to '68
N.N.
On the Death of the Anarchist Serantini
FOR SIX SOLOISTS AND SIX PERCUSSIONISTS
music by Francesco Filidei
text by Stefano Busellato
I Demonstration
II First Canto (I sleep)
III First Intermezzo (Autopsy-Around the World)
IV Jail
V Second Intermezzo (S’Angioni - Sardinian Agnus Dei)
VI Second Canto (Drommi - Sardinian Lullaby)
VII The Funeral of the Anarchist Serantini
Ars Ludi percussions
Antonio Caggiano
Pietro Pompei
Rodolfo Rossi
Gianluca Ruggeri
Aurelio Scudetti
Flavio Tanzi
Ready-Made Ensemble voices
Paola Ronchetti soprano
Antonella Marotta mezzosoprano
Marta Zanazzi contralto
Romolo Tisano tenore
David Ravignani baritono
Giuliano Mazzini basso
director Tonino Battista
Son of N.N.
These are the words written on the identity cards of foundlings until 1975.
N.N. : Nomen Nescio, Name Unknown.
N.N. is a work dedicated to the anarchist Franco Serantini. Arrested during the demonstration of 5 May 1972 in Pisa, he was beaten and sent to prison, and died in an atrocious way following the beatings he suffered at the hands of the police. A story that is an explosive mixture of injustice, rebellion, loneliness and passion capable of summarising in itself the whole of an era and an entire generation that grew up in ’68.
All the performers are totally physically engaged, even movements of the neck and head are annotated on the score: the first part is a scenario of riots, among siren sounds, police whistles and performers stamping their feet on the ground imitating a platoon on the march. The second part is a journey through Serantini’s mind and battered body, clearly referencing the Passion. The last part is a kind of lay ritual that sees all the performers, sitting at a black table, unrestrainedly clicking their tongues, snapping their fingers, gasping, clapping their hands, kissing, coughing, and screaming. These principal sections are separated by two cantos and two intermezzos, part grotesque, part nostalgic. A journey towards the Sardinian language, and towards a maternal figure, is gradually outlined along the score until it reaches the fragments of an amazing lullaby from Campidano.
The text was entrusted to the Pisa philosopher, Stefano Busellato. Encouragement and useful materials were provided by the Serantini Library, Corrado Stajano and Nanni Balestrini.
The concert is supported by SIAE for the project “SIAE - Classici di Oggi”
