Work of the Week – Luigi Nono: Canti di vita e d’amore

About life and love in dark times: The work Canti di vita e d'amore by Luigi Nono will be performed at Musikfest Berlin on 10 September 2024. The orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin will perform under the direction of Donald Runnicles, with Lilit Davtyan (soprano) and Thomas Cilluffo (tenor) taking on the vocal roles.

It was the ‘open wound of Hiroshima’ that urged Luigi Nono to compose his work with the subtitle ‘Sul Ponte di Hiroshima’ in 1962. The work consists of three very different parts based on texts by the philosopher Günther Anders and poems by Jesus Lopez Pacheco and Cesare Pavese. 

Canti di vita e d'amore by Luigi Nono:  hope and love instead of violence and war

Nono counters the cruelties of his present with life and love. He describes the vocal lines as simple and direct, symbolising hope and resistance against all forms of oppression without retreating into a naïve belief in peace. From today's perspective, we cannot comprehend what the Second World War and the use of nuclear weapons against people felt like for the contemporary witnesses. But violence and war are not alien to us either, so Canti di vita e d'amore continues to affect us directly today. 

‘... three situations of our time, which - closely related to each other - inspired me to write these songs of ‘life and love’. Love, not as cancellation or escape from reality, but in the awareness of life.’ (Luigi Nono)

Nono dealt with the heavy legacy of war and violence in various works. Il canto sospeso, based on letters from people sentenced to death, is a prominent example. The next performance of this work will take place on 5 October 2024 in Parma, Italy.

Further Reading:

Luigi Nono: composer profile

Canti di vita e d’amore: work details and online score

Website Philharmonie Berlin

photo: Cameraphoto, Venezia