Search - Richard Rittelmann, Thierry Felix, Vincent le Texier :: Flavio Testi: Saül

With his Saül, the Italian composer Flavio Testi (born in Florence in 1923) joins the select company of great musicians who have retold the eminently tragic story of the king of Israel and his tormented relationship with his son Jonathan and the shepherd David who will succeed to his throne. But unlike Handel, Charpentier and Nielsen, he has not based his work directly on the Bible, but on the highly personal drama by André Gide (1898). The composer sees in this ?a king shorn of all heroic accent, the victim of his own inner destructiveness, for he has given himself over to every instinct, every pleasure?. And he adds: ?It is pure theatre, and the masterpiece of Gide in his finest vein.? Testi concentrates on the heart of the drama, on the malaise, the shameful dreams, obsessions and passions that motivate each of the characters. In a language close to chamber music that nonetheless leaves room for magnificent frissons in the scenes with the Witch of Endor and the Demons, he paints strikingly real psychological portraits of these three men caught up in a triangle of passion. This live recording of the world premiere at Radio France reveals a major operatic work, eloquently served by a strong cast under the direction of the very young and very promising Massimo Zanetti, former assistant to Claudio Abbado.