CHORUSES
Vocal Dramaturgies
The 65th International Festival of Contemporary Music of La Biennale is the first in the four-year term under the direction of composer Lucia Ronchetti.
Titled Choruses – Vocal Dramaturgies, the Biennale Musica 2021 is dedicated to “composing for the voice, based on the monumental choral works of the past decades to the dramaturgical explorations of the most recent vocal production”.
Concerts, sound installations, experimental performances, vocal happenings, a processional opera and a chamber musical theatre work will present the many facets of the voice in contemporary creativity.
The catalogue, after the traditional introduction by the President of La Biennale di Venezia Roberto Cicutto, delves directly into the theme in a dialogue between Lucia Ronchetti and Stefano Nardelli who curated the texts and wrote the explanatory notes to the concerts. Lucia Ronchetti wrote the two texts presenting the Lion Awards: the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Kaija Saariaho and the Silver Lion to the Neue Vocalsolisten from Stuttgart. Critical essays and analytical essays by Stéphane Roth, Peter Sellars, Bjorn Gottstein, Ingrid Pustijanac, Camille Lienhard, enrich the first part of the volume.
Leading into the second part of the catalogue is an original collection of images taken specifically for the Biennale Musica 2021 by Dutch photographer Marco Borggreve, dedicated to the theme of the voice and of song. The second part of the book explores in greater depth the concerts, the sound installations, the experimental performances, the vocal happenings, the processional opera and the chamber music theatre work in the programme with critical notes, the texts of the vocal compositions, the biographies of the composers and performers at the Festival.
The programme of Biennale Musica 2021 is further enhanced by a lecture by Gianmario Borio, a programme of meetings and the Music Lessons dedicated to Venetian polyphonic music produced by Rai Radio3, radio-broadcast live with Giovanni Bietti from the Sala delle Colonne at Ca’ Giustinian.
One section of the catalogue is dedicated to the experimental performances of the young artists of the Biennale College Musica, who address “the dramaturgical potential of the voice, promoting new a cappella musical works, sound installations and site-specific performances also dedicated to the voce and spread across various locations in the city of Venice”.
The book ends with a day-by-day presentation of the complete Calendar of the Festival.
Graphic design and layout by Studio Headline, Rovereto.