Anno 2025/1

This article offers an overarching interpretation of Azio Corghi’s (1937–2022) creative trajectory, tracing his development from his early works in the 1960s to the compositions of his artistic maturity. Among the diverse experiences that shaped Corghi’s career, musical theatre emerges as its primary focus, particularly following the start of his collaboration with José Saramago in 1989.

Azio Corghi’s Mazapegul, set to dialect poems from Emilia-Romagna, is a ballet for vocal octet and oboe. It was commissioned and performed by Aterballetto in 1986 under the conduction of David Garforth, with New Swingle Singers and Pie- tro Borgonovo’s oboe. In many ways it can be considered one of the most representative works of this composer’s style.

The composition is made in five separate movements that draw inspiration from five songs of the French Revolution: La Carmagnole, Vive Henri Quatre, Charmante Gabrielle, Romance patriotique and Ah! ça ira. The analysis refers to the second version (2006), for cello and piano, dedicated to the cellist Silvia Chiesa and the pianist Maurizio Baglini.

Azio Corghi and Saramago’s theatre in music represents the highest synthesis of the compositional, dramaturgical research and of the aesthetics of the composer: eight titles in about twenty years of artistic union.Written for choir and orchestra, De paz e de guerra (2002) is an unicum in Corghi’s production and an exemplum of the relationship between the two artists.

My talk on the figure of Azio Corghi investigates the original ‘seeds’ of a musical thought that nourished my poetic evolution and forged an intimate and personal voice, increasingly oriented towards an abstract and colouristic conception of sound, while preserving a profound poetic and expressive necessity.