Two artists, librettist Andrea Deplano and composer Fabrizio Marchionni, proudly offer the contemporary world "Martino il Giovane e la Bella di Sanluri," an opera in two acts that blends Sardinian, Italian, Catalan, and Castilian dialects, now included in the Universal Edition catalog. A feat, in Deplano's own words, simply exceptional. We met with him after last Friday's presentation at the Cagliari Conservatory.
Professor Deplano, you have dedicated over forty years to the Sardinian language and culture. At what point did you realize that this long research could be transformed into an opera libretto?
I've known Fabrizio Marchionni for almost thirty years, and over that time we've collaborated on many aspects of traditional Sardinian music. It was he who suggested we create a new opera together, capable of embracing the entire span of human experience, from the crib song to the mourners' dirge. That proposal was the spark. From then on, we worked side by side, in an ongoing dialogue that sees multilingualism as a defining characteristic. The libretto is written in Sardinian, Italian, Catalan, and Castilian, because Sardinia has always been a land of linguistic stratifications. This plurality of voices also characterizes Marchionni's music, which intertwines forms tied to the island's musical traditions with original compositions written specifically for the text, in an unprecedented dialogue between memory and creation, between what tradition preserves and what opera, as an art form, can invent.
The Battle of Sanluri in 1409: why this particular chapter in history? And how did it find the intersection between historical fact and legend?
Martin the Younger embodies history in its crudest form. He was the protagonist of an episode that marked the end of the autonomy and sovereignty of the Giudicati of Arborea, ushering in a new era in the relationship between the ruling power and local culture. Initially accepted, it left deep wounds that would last until 1838, when Sardinia was still trapped within the confines of feudalism. These themes, as can be seen, have continued to be relevant today. The Bella di Sanluri, on the other hand, represents the legendary core of the work. I have tried to combine history and fiction with the same tension that inspired Manzoni: the document as the foundation, the imagination as the instrument of truth.
