Music Theatre

From 1985 to the present Luca Francesconi has composed nine works of music theatre:

The opera Scene, on a text by Umberto Fiori.

The chamber opera In ostaggio.

Lips, Eyes Bang, for actress/singer, twelve instruments and live audio/video.

The video-opera Striaz.

Ballata, commissioned by the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels and with stage direction by Achim Freyer.

Buffa Opera, on a text by Stefano Benni, that went on stage at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in 2002, featuring Antonio Albanese.

Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer, commissioned by the Holland Festival, on a libretto by Vittorio Sermonti, was performed for the first time in Amsterdam in June 2004.

Quartett (2011), with a libretto by the composer based on the play by Heiner Müller, commissioned by Teatro alla Scala/Wiener Festwochen, (premiered at La Scala, director Àlex Ollé / Fura dels Baus, conductor Susanna Mälkki). Quartett was performed more than fifty times since its premiere, in six different full productions and in concert form.

Trompe la Mort (libretto by the composer after Balzac) was staged and widely acclaimed at Operà a national de Paris in 2017 (director Guy Cassiers, conductor Susanna Mälkki).     

“The Literaturoper is dead, say the Germans. Luca Francesconi did not get the memo. Nor did the Paris Opera, which has lavished love and care on the Italian composer’s new opera. Trompe-la-Mort brings Balzac’s favourite villain to the opera stage in a gripping work that is both literary and very much alive.
Little risk was involved. Francesconi brings a record of success as a creator of music theatre; his Quartett alone has been performed many and many times. He combines an immaculate pedigree of hardcore modernism (Berio; IRCAM; Stockhausen) with an unapologetic flair for drama and narrative. Francesconi is a stage animal”.
Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times