BIENNALE COLLEGE MUSICA
FOUR ONE-ACT OPERAS

The international call for proposals of the Biennale College Musica was launched in December 2018, for teams of one composer and one librettist aged 35 years or under, to develop 4 low-budget chamber musical theatre projects based on a comical, surreal, fantastic and/or playful theme, lasting no longer than 18 minutes each. Among submissions from Italy, Spain, Israel, Portugal, Great Britain and Switzerland, the following were selected:

- Trashmedy by composer Alessandro De Rosa and librettist Mimosa Campironi;
- Ab Ovo by Israeli duo Talya Eliav and Liron Barchat, respectively composer and librettist;
- Tredici secondi o Un bipede implume ma con unghie piatte by composer Marco Benetti and librettist Fabrizio Funari;
- The Colour's Mechanics by Portuguese composer Nuno Costa, and librettist Madalena dos Santos.

The new element this year is the orchestration which includes, in addition to nine instruments – flute, clarinet, trumpet, two violins, French horn, cello, percussions, piano – the use of live electronics. The Centro di Informatica Musicale e Multimediale of La Biennale di Venezia provided the necessary hardware and software under the guidance of a computer music developer and a sound engineer. Four voices among soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass may be cast for each production.