Operas for today - a position paper on my music:

1.I want to tell new stories that tell of today and yet take up the tradition of old operas again, because their narrative model can be renewed by modern narrative techniques.

2.My musical language is deliberately tonal and yet modern.

3.Tonality allows situational extensions into bi- and atonality and thus also a wider spectrum of emotions than atonality. Above all, however, it also allows us to talk about love. This is worth noting, because hardly any great love arias have been written since Puccini.

4.I write singable melodies. The real rejection in the history of music is not the development of twelve-tone music, but the abandonment of melody. Apart from exceptions such as serial music, contemporary music has largely left melody to pop music, film music and musicals. But writing good melodies is difficult, and not everything tonal is a priori good.

5.An independent style is still possible and important in tonal music today. That's why I only quote other styles when a scene requires it. Independence is my ultimate goal.

6.A clear and simple musical language is high art. Despite conceptual rigor, however, working through tone rows and piling up sound effects often results in a chaotic listening experience. This is because the graphic complexity of a score displays a clarity that is often not reflected in the music played. But music is not paper, it is sound. Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Gershwin and also John Adams are my role models in this respect. That's why you have to deal with the possibilities and limits of human receptivity and with the question of audible clarity.

7.Clarity does not mean simplicity, because clarity does not exclude complexity.

8.I take great emotions into account, because music is emotion, and without great emotions every opera is boring. Musical structures, concepts and forms are therefore only a means to an end and not quality features in themselves.

9.I would like to take up the tradition in order to break new ground. Verdi's vote - even if it is in a different context - has always been worth considering for me: "Ritorniamo all'antico è sarà un progresso." (Let's take a step back and it will be progress).

10. A new tradition is possible.

Tullio Zanovello 2020