soprano and chamber orchestra

Commission: ECM+ & Radio-Canada

Amore, Pasolini to death
in flesh, blood, ashes,
faith and doubt.
Pier and Paolo, like the apostles,
the assassin angel, the theorematic
angel
EMPIRISMO ERETICO
Boys — men,
luminous flesh
Salo and Poesia in forma di rosa,
II fiore delle mille e una notte, Edipo
And then fascism!
Of language and of the father.
“To provoke is still to respect the power
that denounces the forbidden!”

Pasolini discovered the stylistic possibilities of imaginary translation, with absolute seriousness and detachment, fully exploiting his mannerist qualities. He created works through which—and not in which—he obtains concrete poetic representations. It is never about the source, but about models, pretexts, points of reference, in a word: contamination. Contamination is the systematic use of languages and styles of varying origins. I used only three of the four Little Night Poems. They are sonnets, a genre never used by Paso lini, “Strophes of an enigmatic fluidity, where ambiguous verses bathe.”

I would like to thank Maria Teresa de Simone Niquesa, for permission to set the poet’s words to music, as well as Chantal Lambert, John Rea, Véronique Lacroix and the Canadian Broadcast ing Corporation for commissioning this work. Patricia and Dominique, be happy! I would like to dedicate this performance of Poesiole notturne to Gaston Miron. Thank you for your poetry, Mr. Miron.

[xi-21]