La demoiselle élue – Il sogno di Rosetta – Genoveffa di Brabante

by C. Debussy, R. Zandonai, E. Satie

Three Art Nouveau chamber operas in the historic center of Barga

The performance is organized as a tour of some places in Barga and three different poetic worlds that find their inspiration or their reference in the Art Nouveau style.

It starts from the place in Barga with the most rarefied atmosphere, the cathedral, extraordinarily close in its colors to those of Maurice Denis (a friend of Debussy’s and the first illustrator of the score of Ladamoiselle élue) and to the transparencies of the music.

Making then a descent, which is not just physical but also corresponds to the growing accumulation of the materials of which the three pieces are composed, we stop in Piazza Garibaldi, the location of Zandonai’sIl sogno di Rosetta.

The final stop is at the open galleries of the café for Geneviève de Brabant by Contamine de Latour and Satie, an adaptation of the highly popular legend of St. Genevieve for a café chantant. Here we arrive atthe most distant point from where we set out, especially with regard to the relationship  between text and music, as well as theater: from thelyricpoem to cabaret. But Debussy and Satie – the two extremes of this journey – were friends and admired each other.