Lethe

Lethe. 
Opera Buffa Acusmatica

26/10: Napoli (IT), TBA
28/10: Jihlava (CZ), International Documentary Film Festival
15/11: Graz (AT), Cafe Wolf - Interpenetration Series
17/11: Budapest (HU), Kék Ló
22/11: Barcelona (ES), IBA
23/11: Lisbon (PT), Damas
25/11: Coimbra (PT), Fundação Bissaya Barreto
28/11: Pontevedra (ES), Liceo Mutante
29/11: The Hague (NL), LOOS Studios - Kernel Panic Series
01/12: Chiasso (CH), Spazio Lampo
02/12: Abredo (CH), Lo Studio
04/12: Szczecin (PL), Trafostacja Sztuki
06/12: Berlin (DE), KM Galerie
08/12: Poznań (PL), Pawilon
09/12: Wrocław (PL), Rozkurz Series
10/12: Kraków (PL), Baza - Osobliwy Poniedziałek Series
13/12: Warszawa (PL), Komuna// Warszawa

Lethe is an acousmatic opera buffa comprised of recordings taken exclusively in Napoli. They are inlaid with the music of Luciano Cilio, short-lived local composer. The town itself is the place where opera buffa was born in early 18th century. It favored local dialects over official language, mundane heroes and crimes over gods and myths, real voices over operatic singing. All these features still constitute the vibe of the city which seems to be an opera on its own. Being in Napoli means being surrounded by recitatives and arias or rather by the unique mixture of both. The local dialect with its phrasing and intonation turns everyday public quarrels and calls into music gestures. They point right to the very heart of an opera – a landscape of characters, as Robert Ashley famously put it.

Conceptual and structural framework of Lethe comes from topography of purgatory. It was often represented as an underwater mountain steming out of the sea straight to heaven. It is no surprise that the Phlegrean Fields, the land on which the town of Napoli is situated, has long been considered the place of purgatory. According to local beliefs, the latter one is in the least a transitory state. Quite the contrary: the souls of anonymous dead people remain there forever becoming traders with the living. Perhaps this commerce explains why so many of the actual local calls blasted off into the air remain there, unanswered. Or maybe they are answered but inaudibly.