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Talks

Sylvano Bussotti and sfSoundGroup

Thursday, Dec 2, 2010

6 p.m.

Additional Info

7:00 p.m. Screening of Bussotti’s Rara (film), with live piano accompaniment by the director
9:00 p.m. Performance of music by Bussotti, featuring Bussotti and sfSoundGroup, curated by Luciano Chessa

Image: Sylvano Bussotti, Rara Film (still), 1969; image copyright of Sylvano Bussotti

In collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco Cinematheque, and the Progetto Sonora-CEMAT, and inspired by Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870, we present an evening with Italian composer and director Sylvano Bussotti, a key innovator in contemporary music since the early 1960s. We begin with the U.S. premiere of a restored print of silent Rara (film), which gathers “filmed portraits” of the Italian avant-garde, including the circle around Pier Paolo Pasolini, the expats of Julian Beck’s Living Theater, and Bussotti’s muse Cathy Berberian. Tonight we watch the director watch and respond to his film. Following the screening, sfSoundGroup joins the composer to move through Bussotti’s music, from Breve (1958-59), for the early electronic instrument ondes martenot, and the sizzling two-pianos duo Tableaux vivants avant La Passion selon Sade (1964), to the recent Variazione Berio (2007). Stephanie Syjuco proffers local artists’ wares at Shadowshop’s Grand Opening Artist Party in conjunction with The More Things Change, and as always at Now Playing, Meatpaper magazine leads a “Food & Thought” event in the Rooftop Garden. Knead Bakery, Luce, Ozumo, The Paragon, The Terrace Room, and Tres Agaves bring free bites to the Schwab Room.

Please note that seating in the Phyllis Wattis Theater is limited and on a first come first serve basis.