Il libretto di Le Racine: pianobar pour Phèdre (1980) di Sylvano Bussotti: le fonti e la drammaturgia*

Unlike other works by Sylvano Bussotti, the libretto of the opera Le Racine: pianobar pour Phèdre—which premiered at the Piccola Scala of Milan in 1980—was never published. The score, made available by Ricordi (1980), reproduces the author's manuscript, and it contains the musical text and the sung words exclusively. It does not contain any information about the characters, the setting, and the opera structure. The playbill, the press reviews, and the program notes of the premiere are essential to reconstructing this information. Also, a photostatic copy of a manuscript libretto of Le Racine was found during an archival research at the Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine in Paris. It was used for staging the work in Strasbourg in 1986, but was probably drawn up during the Milanese staging. It contains some annotations by Bussotti that are valuable for understanding the opera dramaturgy. From the perspective of a new staging of Le Racine, all these sources are vital for preparing a modern edition of the libretto and highlighting the principle of indeterminateness at the basis of the opera.