Constructing ‘Cathy’

Abstract

Recital I (for Cathy) is a music theatre solo piece conceived by Luciano Berio for Cathy Berberian and premiered in 1972. The piece constitutes a heterogeneous journey articulated through musical quotations: a spread of musical excerpts extrapolated mainly from Berberian’s repertoire animate a spoken monologue created by Edoardo Sanguineti, Andrea Mosetti and Luciano Berio, and heavily edited by Berberian after the premiere. A stream of consciousness of sorts, the script is a collage built on cross-references, self-quotations and citations perpetrated by Berio and enhanced by Berberian through autobiographical resonances. The performer becomes the exposed medium of a multi-layered metaphor that, through processes related to memory and subjectivity, plays with the representation of the performer’s persona. Recital I poses a salient example of intersubjectivity conveyed through intertextuality. The ‘recital’ envisaged by Berberian and Berio is an arena in which a solo singer not only plays the protagonist of the work but also becomes the scapegoat of their own personal and idiomatic artistic self-reflection.