Canti di fabbrica (Factory Songs) for tenor and orchestra is a new composition by Fabio Vacchi, based on poetry by three “factory poets” and commissioned by Teatro La Fenice. The piece is in honor of Porto Marghera, one of Europe’s leading industrial areas, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. It will be performed at the opening of Teatro La Fenice’s 2017-2018 concert season on November 3.
The poetry of Attilio Zanichelli, Fabio Franzin and Ferruccio Brugnaro, rife with the feelings of workers’ resignation, anger and hope, will be sung by tenor Paolo Antognetti. Donato Renzetti conducts the Teatro La Fenice Orchestra.

Fabio Vacchi is fascinated by the intensity, the harshness and power of the three workers’ poetry. Here are a few quotes from his introduction:  
[…] It was the water, which figures so much in my perception of this work – perhaps because I’m so closely tied to Venice and consider myself a Venetian at heart – that really put a spell on me, and how it comes into play in Attilio Zanichelli’s outstanding poetry. […] The intense, tormented poetry of Fabio Franzin […] inspired me to delve into the ethnic heritage that I have always drawn upon, studied and assimilated, without which my music wouldn’t even exist. […] The powerful words of Ferruccio Brugnaro, used in the third and fourth Lieder, immediately struck me to the core. […] The last poem represents the spontaneous power of the values that I so deeply believe in: We can never say enough. This is why it is up to art to keep telling those stories, to dig them up and bring them back to life. […]


The Porto Marghera industrial area was founded in 1917 by the Venetian entrepreneur Giuseppe Volpi, with the aim of modernizing the economy of Venice through the creation of a commercial port, factories and housing and services for workers and their families. Look forward to a cavalcade of events in celebration of Porto Marghera’s 100th anniversary.



Find out more about Fabio Vacchi

Photo: Michele Crosera