Cronache animali
Pocket Opera
[vce,ens] 1998/2025 duration: 50′ solo: vce – fl.clar(sax).Jazz-drums – guit – vc
vocal text: ItalienDescription
In 1998 I composed Cronache animali based on poems by Toti Scialoja and described it as a “pocket opera for singing actress and five instruments.” It consists of 33 micro-songs, expressly conceived not for a trained opera singer but for an actress – originally Paola Roman. With a 110-meter painted canvas scroll designed by Giorgio Barullo and a small ensemble of musicians, it took on an unusual theatrical form that I would now more readily describe as music theatre.
The musicians did more than play: they acted, imitated animals, and helped assemble and dismantle the large stage machinery. After its debut in Stuttgart, we toured for years through concert halls, schools, and public spaces, giving more than eighty performances. A CD recording later ensured the work’s survival even after the ensemble disbanded.
In 2025, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano invited me to prepare a new version of the piece for young audiences. I reduced the ensemble, added a string orchestra, and refined certain details without altering the original style.
Now a new chapter begins with different performers. What remains essential is what the writer Dario Voltolini identified as the work’s central quality in his liner notes for the CD: “The more I reflect on it, the more I am convinced that the most valuable quality of this festive show, created by Nicola Campogrande from the words of Toti Scialoja, lies in the gentleness with which the refined short-circuits of syllables and phonemes that Scialoja – touched by grace – fashioned in our Italian language are accompanied.” There it is: gentleness is the key to the interpretation of this score of mine. If possible, please keep this in mind.
(Nicola Campogrande, October 2025)
EB 9639
score
EAN: 9790004191323
EB 9639D
score
EAN: 9790004824160
EB 9650
piano reduction
EAN: 9790004191439
84 pages / 23 x 30.5 cm / 331 g / stapled
EB 9650D
piano reduction
EAN: 9790004824948
84 pages / 23 x 30.5 cm / digital edition
EB 9640
set of parts
EAN: 9790004191330
EB 9640D
set of parts
EAN: 9790004824177
MM 2311132
hire material
Version for small orchestra
solo: vce – fl.clar(sax).Jazz-drums – 3.3.2.2.1 (min.)
Description
Description
In 1998 I composed Cronache animali based on poems by Toti Scialoja and described it as a “pocket opera for singing actress and five instruments.” It consists of 33 micro-songs, expressly conceived not for a trained opera singer but for an actress – originally Paola Roman. With a 110-meter painted canvas scroll designed by Giorgio Barullo and a small ensemble of musicians, it took on an unusual theatrical form that I would now more readily describe as music theatre.
The musicians did more than play: they acted, imitated animals, and helped assemble and dismantle the large stage machinery. After its debut in Stuttgart, we toured for years through concert halls, schools, and public spaces, giving more than eighty performances. A CD recording later ensured the work’s survival even after the ensemble disbanded.
In 2025, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano invited me to prepare a new version of the piece for young audiences. I reduced the ensemble, added a string orchestra, and refined certain details without altering the original style.
Now a new chapter begins with different performers. What remains essential is what the writer Dario Voltolini identified as the work’s central quality in his liner notes for the CD: “The more I reflect on it, the more I am convinced that the most valuable quality of this festive show, created by Nicola Campogrande from the words of Toti Scialoja, lies in the gentleness with which the refined short-circuits of syllables and phonemes that Scialoja – touched by grace – fashioned in our Italian language are accompanied.” There it is: gentleness is the key to the interpretation of this score of mine. If possible, please keep this in mind.
(Nicola Campogrande, October 2025)
Table of contents
| 1. | Pipistrello ti par bello |
| 2. | Questa sarta tartaruga |
| 3. | Topo topo, senza scopo |
| 4. | L’ippopota disse «Mo» |
| 5. | Un letto di piuma |
| 6. | Quanto è languida l’anguilla |
| 7. | Son quattro le gatte |
| 8. | La zanzara per decenza |
| 9. | Batte la fiacca a Cuma una lumaca |
| 10. | Quando al picchio in un picnic |
| 11. | C’è un coniglio in Campidoglio |
| 12. | Sotto la gronda gridano le rondini |
| 13. | A Sciaffusa s’è diffusa la notizia |
| 14. | Fuori Farfa le farfalle |
| 15. | A mezzanotte la luna spicca |
| 16. | C’è una carpa che ama l’arpa |
| 17. | Quando il tetro dromedario |
| 18. | Una fanfara in fondo alla pineta |
| 19. | I bassotti di Pisticci |
| 20. | Se il castello è raso al suolo |
| 21. | Ieri ho visto un vecchio bracco |
| 22. | Un camello, lungo il corso |
| 23. | Se i moscerini scemi vano a sciami |
| 24. | Ho visto un corvo sorvolare Orvieto |
| 25. | Durante la stagione balneare |
| 26. | Se una cimice emaciata |
| 27. | Un tafano di Porto Santo Stefano |
| 28. | Un esercito di pulci |
| 29. | C’è una razza azurrina di zanzare |
| 30. | Nelle grotte di Malacca |
| 31. | La zanzara mentre vola |
World premiere
World premiere of the version for 5 instruments: Stuttgart, Theater der Altstadt, April 20, 1998
World premiere of the version for small orchestra: Milan/Italy, Auditorium, May 16, 2026
Commissioned by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano