Towards a multitudinous voice: Dario Fo's adaptation of L'Histoire du soldat

Dario Fo worked with La Scala only once, in 1978-79; the occasion was an adaptation of Ramuz and Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat (1918). This brief, pointedly anti-operatic work connected the dissident artist and a leading cultural institution at a time when both were re-evaluating their means of addressing the public. For Fo, as well as for the Italian Left at large, 1978 marked the ten-year anniversary of the 1968 riots and a time of deep doubt about the possibility of collective political action. For La Scala, 1978 was not only the tenth year under the bold musical directorship of Claudio Abbado, but also involved celebrations of the theatre's bicentenary. In this article we weave together the Left's crisis with a close reading of Fo's adaptation, using the notion of vocal address as an interpretative linchpin. By considering the myth of Risorgimento opera as vox populi, the figure of Stravinsky's songless soldier, the sound of babbling crowds and the recorded speaking voice of Antonio Negri, we offer a new exploration of the cross section of art and left-wing politics in the Italy of 1978.