Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti is to provide the music from his opera 'la passion selon Sade' (The Passion According to Sade) as a score for Auckland-born filmmaker Paul Amlehn's upcoming feature The Tears of Eros.

Born in Florence, 1931, Sylvano Bussotti has created the most dramatic and unusual graphic scores of the post-World War II avant-garde. He is also among the most important artists to bring a polymorphous sexuality onto the operatic and concert stage.

Among Sylvano Bussotti's works for music theatre, 'la passion selon Sade' is the most experimental and innovative. Composed in 1965 for soprano, ten instruments and percussion, the lead role was originally sung by mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian. The libretto consists of a musical montage of words from the books of the Marquis de Sade and a 16th-century sonnet by Louise Labe.

Its main characteristic is that almost all the lines begin with the vocative letter 'O', which also identifies the work's protagonist: i.e. Justine-Juliette, the two sisters of Sade's novels who respectively stand for virtue (leading to a life of trouble) and vice (leading to a life of joy).

But at the same time in Bussotti's unique musical notation, 'O' is the abbreviation of
'organ,' as well as being an explicit reference to 'Histoire d'O,' the sadomasochistic novel by Pauline Reage.

Sylvano Bussotti joins cinematographer Benoit Debie and director Paul Amlehn on the crew for The Tears of Eros, to be shot in Italy and France in 2006.

See also:
» Cinematographer Benoit Debie to shoot Paul Amlehn's films