Description
Marco Beasley tenor
Guido Morini harpsichord
Alfio Antico percussion
Una Odissea was written by Italian tenor Marco Beasley and composer/harpsichordist Guido Morini at the invitation of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Alfio Antico, a Sicilian percussionist and traditional singer, contributed the song Nessuno as well as the primordial sound of his frame drum, which is the heartbeat of the programme.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and Steinway pianos didn’t exist yet, Una Odissea might have been performed four hundred years ago, on a market square somewhere around the Mediterranean. Its dual inspirations are Ithaca, a poem by the Greek poet Cavafy, and of course Homer’s Odyssey itself. The journey (to Ithaca) and Ulysses’ wanderings are metaphors for the search for our true selves. Ulysses has a message for the people of this day and age, with their need for security. The message is that we can only achieve our goal if we are willing to let go of the things that are dearest to us: the reassurance of a safe route, the comfort of friends and companions, and last but not least our very name.
The problems and setbacks that cross the path of Nobody (Nessuno) are the same problems and setbacks that we ourselves encounter day after day, year after year, in the hope of one day finding our own Ithaca.
