Autorappresentazione e poetica della convergenza “colto-popolare” negli scritti di Franco Oppo: studio diacronico e prospettive critiche (1953-2005)

Paolo Dal Molin

2022-01-01

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Abstract

The first part of the essay reconstructs the self-representation provided by the composer Franco Oppo in his writings (both published and unpublished) and interviews from the early 1980s to 2005, and considers its transformations over time and across different contexts. Two phenomena are observed at the extremes of this period. Initially, Oppo's public reflection on the relationship between musical composition and Sardinian oral tradition music (MTO) seems to emerge belatedly in comparison to his implicit poetics and in relation to a distinctive self-positioning within the field of European contemporary art music (MAC). By the end of this period, a prevailing view of Oppo's creative relationship with MTO arises within the Sardinian context, framed in terms of naturalness and authenticity. This discourse, seemingly allographic and perhaps unofficial, yet endorsed by the composer himself, appears to align with identity codifications promoted by local institutions. The second part of the essay traces in the composer's archive various forms of the relationship between MAC and MTO dating back to the 1950s-1970s, which are absent from the self-representation analyzed. In particular, it sheds light on a collective endeavor coordinated by Oppo in the early 1970s, which fostered a meeting between “subaltern” musical cultures and presumably catalyzed the search for synthesis pursued by the composer in the following years.