Intolerance 1963 (2025)
From Studies in the History of the RenaissanceHosted by NEBYULA as part of Various Others at Bayerischer Hof in Munich
Intolerance 1963 is an ambient sound composition that reinterprets recorded excerpts from Luigi Nono’s radical 1961 atonal opera Intolleranza 1960, a seminal work that confronted the political realities of fascism, militarism, and societal oppression. In this work, the opera is slowed down by an extreme factor, detuned away from the tuning standard of 440hz, spatially and resonantly modified, and subject to extended temporal processing including granular synthesis.
The installation is designed not just as a sonic experience, but as an interaction with its physical context, the Bayerischer Hof hotel, the very site of the 2024 Munich Security Conference. This location, emblematic of global political power and statecraft, serves as a direct counterpoint to the ethos of the work.
In the same way Nono built his opera upon Bertolt Brecht’s poem “An die Nachgeborenen”, Intolerance 1963 engages with Nono’s legacy from a different generation and national context. Rather than aiming to replicate the urgency of the original, the work reflects on its persistent themes through a slower, more meditative lens, considering how histories of resistance resonate across time and place.
Documentation: Diogo Frazão