Cronache animali

In 1998 I composed Cronache animali based on poems by Toti Scialoja and described it as a “pocket opera for singing actress and five instruments.” It consists of 33 micro-songs, expressly conceived not for a trained opera singer but for an actress – originally Paola Roman. With a 110-meter painted canvas scroll designed by Giorgio Barullo and a small ensemble of musicians, it took on an unusual theatrical form that I would now more readily describe as music theatre.

The musicians did more than play: they acted, imitated animals, and helped assemble and dismantle the large stage machinery. After its debut in Stuttgart, we toured for years through concert halls, schools, and public spaces, giving more than eighty performances. A CD recording later ensured the work’s survival even after the ensemble disbanded.

In 2025, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano invited me to prepare a new version of the piece for young audiences. I reduced the ensemble, added a string orchestra, and refined certain details without altering the original style.

Now a new chapter begins with different performers. What remains essential is what the writer Dario Voltolini identified as the work’s central quality in his liner notes for the CD: “The more I reflect on it, the more I am convinced that the most valuable quality of this festive show, created by Nicola Campogrande from the words of Toti Scialoja, lies in the gentleness with which the refined short-circuits of syllables and phonemes that Scialoja – touched by grace – fashioned in our Italian language are accompanied.” There it is: gentleness is the key to the interpretation of this score of mine. If possible, please keep this in mind.

(Nicola Campogrande, October 2025)