On our blog, our contemporary composers present their favorite works from our catalogs. This time: Ricordi London composer John Hopkins introduces Pascal Dusapin's Perelà - Uomo di Fumo.

"From the very start of the orchestral introduction to this opera, I was intrigued and captivated. It’s quite rare in contemporary music to hear so much being done with so few notes, and the curious tone, a blend of light and dark, was immediately apparent.

My initial acquaintance with Dusapin’s music was through the set of Solos for Orchestra, recently recorded on the Naïve label, and it was very interesting to hear that kind of instrumental drama transferred to a work for the stage.

Given that the original texts for Perelà were in Italian, it was a very good decision on Dusapin’s part to set the libretto in that language, which is, after all, the fundamental operatic tongue. The story is fantastic, funny, tender, witty, serious, tragic by turn, and carries some profound implications which can be reflected on for a long time, without ever becoming capable of an easy or simple interpretation: this must be one of the criteria for any successful dramatic work – to ask questions and to show situations without forcing a message or a view too insistently. Above all, to show rather than to tell.

Musically, Perelà is lyrical, dramatic and accessible, covering a wide range of references without either falling apart or being forced into too narrow a channel. It offers a number of challenging roles, and presents many opportunities for interesting staging, design and production. While never seeming naïve or glib, the opera doesn’t make impossible demands on the performers, singers or orchestra, or the audience, and I would really hope that a production might be mounted in London before much longer."