Space, voice, gesture between Nuova Musica and Nuovo Teatro Musicale

In the ‘60s, there was a liminal space where Nuova Musica’s compositions and Nuovo Teatro’s actions had put in place similar solutions, creating a complex cross-reference between theatrical action and musical compositions. Sometimes those compositions – not thought for the theatre – have deepened crucial aspect for Nuovo Teatro and sometimes anticipated what was happening in the theatrical-musical scene. The problematics raised from those compositions and the resulting reflections concern mainly the use of the acustic space, the voice and the body language. The first two (space and voice) are elements that Nuova Musica was thinking back since the ‘50s, before the actions of the Nuovo Teatro Musicale began to undermine the foundation of the traditional opera. After a short excursus in the practice of voice and space in the ‘50s, and after analyzing how the body language step inside the music’s composition process during the ‘60s, we analyze some compositions by Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Domenico Guaccero, searching for changes and afterthougts that can be grasped in compositions not directly designed for the theatre stage.