© Luca Concas
Revolutions in Music
Tribute to Stockhausen in the 10th anniversary of his death
Harlekin
for clarinet (1975)
solist Roberta Gottardi
light design Luciano Gottardi
costume design Gabriella Gasperini
direction Stefano Patarino
The masked “types” of the commedia dell’arte left nothing behind but their hidden essence, their deepest, most abstract spirit—Stockhausen’s Harlekin does not speak: his personality emerges from the sound of a clarinet and the performer’s gestures, music and body language. A performer who must master different languages (sound, mime, dance), merged into a unique continuum describing the protagonist’s metamorphosis from a “Dream Messenger” to a “Roguish Joker” and an “Exalted Spinning Spirit”. A monologue built along the lines of Stockhausen’s infallible compositional “formula”, which has become part of Roberta Gottardi’s own self. Endlessly and intensely studying the piece with the composer, she can now reveal its hidden secrets in a performance that preserves and re-proposes the magic of the first time.
