The 60th edition of the Festival di Spoleto has commissioned Silvia Colasanti to compose a requiem in remembrance of the victims of last year’s earthquakes that rocked central Italy. 
The world premiere of Requiem. Stringeranno nei pugni una cometa, for soloists, choir and orchestra, is slated for July 2 in piazza del Duomo. The title borrows a line from the Dylan Thomas poem Why East Wind Chills (“Shall they clasp a comet in their fists?”), while the text of Mariangela Gualtieri’s libretto engages in a dialogue with excerpts from the Latin Requiem Mass. The work is designed in an oratorial structure. The characters that recount the drama – “Cuore ridotto in cenere” (Heart Reduced to Ashes), “Coro di chi non dubita” (The Undoubting Choir), “Respiro della terra” (Breath of the Land) and “La dubitante” (The Doubter) – are played respectively by mezzo soprano Monica Bacelli, the International Opera Choir, Richard Galliano on the bandoneon, and Mariangela Gualtieri as narrator. The voices of the characters alternate in a dialogue with the orchestra; texts sung by the mezzo soprano and the choir are in Latin. 
 
Composer Silvia Colasanti comments on Requiem: “It is a farewell song to those who died in the earthquakes. It stands as a rejection of the lugubrious idea of death and an angry, judgmental, authoritarian and punitive God. It is also a song of hope and thankfulness. The bandoneon soloist personifies a longing for rebirth, a request for forgiveness for human frailty and a song of thanks to the earth and the heavens – with all the compassion, ardor and tenderness that the lay rites of music and poetry are capable of.”  

Requiem will also be performed this September 27, at Bolzano’s Transart Festival, and as part of the Orchestra Verdi’s 2018-19 concert season in Milano. 



Requiem. Stringeranno nei pugni una cometa 
for Solos, Chorus and Orchestra
after texts by Mariangela Gualtieri and excerpts from the Latin Requiem Mass 
World premiere: Spoleto, July 2, Piazza Duomo
Maxime Pascal, conductor
Gea Garatti, chorus conductor
Instrumentation: rec. voice, mezzo soprano, bandoneon - chorus (min. 32 singers) // 2.2.2.2. / 4.2.2.1. / 2 perc hp / strings (min. 10.8.6.6.4)
Durata: 60’ ca.