Luciano Berio - Laborintus II

Luciano Berio (1925 - 2003) - Laborintus II (1965)
Christine Legrand, soprano
Janette Baucomont, soprano
Claudine Meunier, contralto
Edoardo Sanguineti, speaker
Ensemble Musique Vivante, Luciano Berio (1969)
Laborintus II is a work by Luciano Berio for 3 voices, 8 actors, speaker, ensemble, and tape. Due to the freedom and indeterminacy of the score - one passage calls for an extensive jazz improvisation - performance durations can vary substantially, though typical performances are around 35 minutes.
"Laborintus II, composed in 1965, was commissioned by the French Television to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth. It takes its title from the poetic collection Laborintus by Edoardo Sanguineti.
The text of Laborintus II develops certain themes from Dante’s Vita nuova, Convivio, and Divina Commedia, combining them - mainly through formal and semantic analogies - with Biblical texts and texts by T. S. Eliot, Pound and Sanguineti himself.
The main formal reference of Laborintus II is the catalogue, in its medieval meaning (like the Etymologies of Isodore of Seville, for instance, also appearing in Laborintus), which combines the Dantesque themes of memory, death and usury - that is, the reduction of all things to market value. Individual words and sentences are sometimes to be regarded as autonomous entities, and sometimes to be perceived as part of the sound structure as a whole.
The principle of the catalogue is not limited to the text: it underlies the musical structure as well. Laborintus II is a catalogue of references, attitudes and elementary instrumental techniques; a rather didactic catalogue, like a school book dealing with Dantesque visions and musical gestures. The instrumental parts are developed mainly as an extension of the vocal actions of singers and speakers, and the short section of electronic music is conceived as an extension of the instrumental actions.
Laborintus II is a theatre work; it can be treated as a story, an allegory, a documentary, a dance. It can be performed in a school, in a theatre, on television, in the open air, or in any other place permitting the gathering of an audience."
(source: Luciano Berio)
Due to the nature of the piece, it is rather difficult to synchronize the score with what is heard. If you have any suggestions on how to better handle this, please let me know, in case I run into similar compositions in the future. *

[@giadamigliori2640]

Bella opera! Originale e innovativa, rispecchia lo spirito tradizionale ma al contempo innovativo dei anni 60.

[@PalumboComposer]

capolavoro assoluto

[@dorissueliteixeira6476]

Me deixa sem palavras. Impressionante.

[@lucabortoluzzi8103]

Amazing! Thank you very much for sharing!

[@user-df7bo8ur7u]

Gracias compo

[@jeanpierredrouet-gp7gw]

Écoutez ça chers amis et dites-moi ce que vous en pensez !...

[@Flatscores]

Amazing work. Really enjoyable.

[@louchesimon]

Incroyable ! Merci beaucoup

[@mruberduck]

Oh yeah!

[@michelebeartGIBBONGASCON]

Merci

[@feliperodriguezbarrera]

Maravilloso

[@michaelpeppe7659]

Precipotato: one who watches the rain from a couch? 😄

[@Archangina]

❤