Johanna Doderer: Settings of Parole by Antonia Pozzi, translated by Lawrence Venuti
Loré Lixenberg (mezzo–soprano)
Clemens Kölbl (baritone)
Elenlucia Pappalardo (piano)

This special evening is a collaboration between the Austrian Cultural Forum London and the Italian Cultural Institute and presents the UK première of Austrian composer Johanna Doderer’s song cycle Parole, settings of poems by the Italian poet Antonia Pozzi (1912 – 38). The English translations by Lawrence Venuti will have their world première.

Johanna Doderer was drawn to the expressive lyrics of the Milanese poet saying ‘it was a difficult, moving experience for me – following the emotional whirlpool of the poet’s life and putting
it to music’.

Antonia Pozzi’s suicide at twenty-six in 1938 as well as her gender, made early critics reluctant to pronounce her an important modern poet. Today Pozzi is recognized as one of the most exquisite Italian poets of 20th century.