Luciano Berio - Passaggio (1962)

Описание: Passaggio (for soprano, two choirs and instruments) caused a scandal when it premièred at the Piccola Scala in 1963. “I knew the audience would lose their heads so I briefed the choir accordingly. I told the choir that they should join in as soon as the audience starts shouting, echo the last word and improvise on it. And that’s exactly what happened. Some people shouted “Buffoni”. The choir echoed the word immediately, sped it up, whispered it, lengthened the “o” and turned the improvisation into part of the performance. The audience became completely hysterical because they had lost their chance to protest.” (Luciano Berio)

In Passaggio, musical theatre is engaged in an attempt to make the relationship between audience and stage more flexible, almost trying to establish a physical dialogue between them. There is of course a kind of extremely avant-garde music which, by setting itself up as a challenge to the audience, almost demands an angry reaction so that the hissing, the buzzing and the protests become a part - casual but expected - of the concerto of sounds and noises performed on the stage.

But the authors of Passaggio have not adopted this technique: in creating a direct relationship between stage and stalls they foresee that the audience may react, but they do not see any such reaction as an essential ingredient of the action. In order to establish the dialogue a chorus is distributed amongst the audience (Chorus B, as opposed to Chorus A which performs in the orchestra pit), which will constantly intervene in the protagonist's stage performance, addressing her and commenting on her actions.