Donella Del Monaco

Fragments 1975-2002 Donella Del Monaco

It was the time of an avant-garde operation, linked to the "OpusAvantra" label - a label which remains a symbol for so many passionate admirers even today, with it's halo of myth besides a source of inspiration for so many of those who have taken up the flame, especially in the field of the progressive rock of the seventies. For a certain period Donella then chose to take on the guise of a performer of purely opera and lieder, at the "Fenice" Theatre in Venice and the Massimo Theatre in Palermo, besides many other theatres: all in order to put her abilities as a complete performer to the test. Later, however, knowing in her heart that she should not limit her means of expression only to the use of her voice as an instrument, all her creative greatness emerged in her arrangements and re-inventions. She did not confine herself to working merely as an "orchestrator/arranger", but with the force of her inspiration she ends up by inventing and composing something which goes beyond what has already been written by others. Indeed the role which Donella Del Monaco takes upon herself is that of one who follows the paths of research, composing music and texts - even in languages which had become lost - until she becomes the director of her own work. The complexity of her harmonisation and of what is written or what she herself writes, is always unravelled before the listener on two levels - simultaneously cultured and refined while also immediately popular. When she puts herself at the service of pre-existing works, or ones which come to life with her, Donella Del Monaco offers her vocal and intellectual depth and sets herself apart on account of her artistic singularity, something which it is always impossibile top ut a label to. (Art de Rosa)