On 20 June the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy presents the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Il medico dei pazzi, a comic opera loosely based on Edoardo Scarpetta’s Neapolitan comedy of the same name. The libretto was written by the composer. On stage there will be 11 singers and a chorus, conducted by Francesco Lanzillotta. The stage direction is by Carlos Wagner. 



What led you to write a comic opera and to choose a text from the early 20th century?
Two things that often have been missing from contemporary music are the ironic dimension and the comic one, both of which are very difficult to express through a non-tonal musical language. Often it’s been possible to express the grotesque, the paradoxical, but in the last thirty years comedy and even more so irony have been almost completely extraneous to the musical language of our time.

How does the comic translate into composition? Does it have any special characteristics?
The comic, just like the dramatic, expresses itself through the dramaturgic rhythm of a narration or an anti-narration. It’s always a formal problem, of the relationship between something preceding and something following. Musical form addresses certain listening expectations and the non-realisation of these expectations creates solutions that can surprise and amuse us.

Can you tell us about how you worked with the director Carlo Wagner?
I believe that the score is the cornerstone of an opera and that the job of directing is always the expression of one of many possible interpretations. But everything must by generated by the music. The productions that work the best are those that respect the score, that don’t prop it up but rather complete its musical expression.

Il medico dei pazzi is the second opera that the Opera National de Lorraine has commissioned from you. The first was Divorzio all’Italiana - who can forget Pietro Germi’s famous film? - which went on stage in 2008. What kind of tie is there (if there is one) between the two operas?
One of the connections that can be seen between Il medico dei pazzi and Divorzio all’italiana is the reference to a characteristic of Italy that only gets remembered in a stereotyped way. On the one hand, there’s the Italy of Sicily, of jealousy and of the passionate and possessive relationships and, on the other, there’s a wily, cunning, intelligent Neapolitan world that moves freely within misunderstanding. While Divorzio all’italiana has a tie with the crime pages of a newspaper, Il medico dei pazzi is connected directly to Italy’s Commedia dell’Arte.

Your extensive catalogue counts about 75 compositions, of which almost half are music theatre works, inspired by novels, dramas by great writers: Antonin Artaud, Gabriel García Márquez, Pier Paolo Pasolini, William Shakespeare, to cite just a few. Can you tell us what it means for you to write an opera?
Musical composition, writing an opera, is the only way I have of relating with the present and of expressing the bewildering character of our times.

Il medico dei pazzi is a co-production by the Opéra national de Lorraine and Theater Münster. What projects are you working on at the moment?
Right at the moment I’m completing the score of the opera CO2 that will be presented at the Scala in Milan in 2015 with stage direction by Robert Carsen, and in 2016, in Hannover, Germany, there will be the world premiere of Lot.

Battistelli: work list