Archetipi operistici e geometrie musicali nel Giordano Bruno di Francesco Filidei

The essay analyzes the opera Giordano Bruno by Francesco Filidei, one of the most representative musical theater works in beginning of 21st century. The musical dramaturgy is based on closed and ritualized forms, 12 scenes built on the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, along two vectors, one in upward, one in downward motion. This formal device of diverging scales is also reflected in the structure of the different scenes, which are analyzed individually, and in the construction of all music materials. Although deriving from basic elements, such as scales, these materials appear very various and evocative, even with stylistic references and quotations, especially in the vocal writing switching from aphasic and fragmented singing to arioso, from plainchant to explicit references to the Italian opera. Along with the music analysis, the close link between sound, performative elements and symbolic meanings is highlighted. The whole opera is based on the intersection between a rising horizon and another that descends, like Giordano Bruno’s two existential paths: six “philosophical” scenes, which rise towards an infinite world, and six “biographical” scenes instead describe a descent towards the abyss, cul- minating in the scene of the Stake (n.11), a tragic epilogue corresponding to an emblematic passage from sound to noise, and symbolizing the fusion between body and wood, between animate and inanimate matter, the two “primary” elements by which the composer got inspired.