Diego Matheuz (photo) will conduct the world premiere of a new piece by the Venetian composer Mauro Lanza on June 6 (with an additional performance the following day) at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. 

The work, commissioned by the theatre as part of the New Music at the Fenice project, has a curious title: Anatra digeritrice (Piccola Wunderkammer di automi oziosi) for orchestra. The composer drew inspiration for the work from Le Canard Digérateur, an automaton with the appearance of a duck designed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739, which reproduced the movements and physiological functions of the animal in a hyper-realistic manner.

The piece, in which the composer makes use of automatic compositional processes, aspires to be – as Lanza explains – “a little collection of musical automatons, of precision-made mechanisms that move about pointlessly”. Mauro Lanza’s composition is dedicated to the musicologist Giovanni Morelli, who died two years ago.