Bombs in Venice

As many a composer has learned, the flash point of Italian opera fans is notoriously low. But last week an audience in Venice's elegant little Teatro La Fenice erupted in an explosion rare even for Italy. No sooner did the violent, harshly dissonant music begin than it was interrupted by boos, catcalls, whistles and a shower of stink bombs. "Why don't you play the cha cha cha?" shrieked the right-wingers in the balcony. "Dirty Fascists!" "Cretins!" roared back supporters in the orchestra.

What touched the riot off was a bitter social protest titled Intolerance 1960, the first operatic effort of Luigi Nono, who at 36 is the most promising--and controversial--talent in Italian music. At opera's end, Nono's supporters triumphantly hoisted him to their shoulders. Even more pleasing to Composer Nono was the 'Si! Si!" of the rumpled, breathless critics, who generously agreed that it had been a stirring experience. "The most interesting, complex and original musical spectacle since the last war," said one. Added a second in an opinion from which none dissented: "The most violent work ever heard in an opera house."

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