The piece is meant for live presentation which brings together sound from speakers with projection of text (in blackout). 

All recordings, edits, libretto and mix made in Napoli by Michal Libera.
Instrumental music by Luciano Cilio. 

Lethe is an acousmatic opera comprised of recordings taken exclusively in Napoli. They are inlaid with the music of Luciano Cilio, short-lived local composer. The town itself is the place where opera buffa was born in early 18th century. It favored local dialects over official language, mundane heroes and crimes over gods and myths, real voices over operatic singing. All these features still constitute the vibe of the city which seems to be an opera on its own. Being in Napoli means being surrounded by recitatives and arias or rather by the unique mixture of both. The local dialect with its phrasing and intonation turns everyday public quarrels and calls into music gestures. They point right to the very heart of an opera – a landscape of characters, as Robert Ashley famously put it. 

The conceptual and structural framework of Lethe comes from topography of purgatory. It was often represented as an underwater mountain steming out of the sea straight into paradise. It is no
surprise that the Phlegrean Fields, the land on which the town of Napoli is situated, has long been considered the place of purgatory. According to local beliefs, the latter one is in the least a transitory state. Quite the contrary: the souls of anonymous dead people remain there forever becoming traders with the living. Perhaps this commerce explains why so many of the actual local calls blasted off
into the air remain there, unanswered. Or maybe they are answered but inaudibly.

LETHE. Opera Buffa Acusmatica [Overture]

Sociologist working in sound and music field since 2003, recently involved mostly in producing and staging sound essays and other experimental forms of radio art and opera which brought him to collaborate with Martin Küchen, Pete Simonelli, Ralf Meinz, Komuna// Warszawa, Hilary Jeffery, Apartment House and others; producer of conceptual pop label Populista dedicated to mis- and over- interpretation of music as well as series of reinterpretations of music made in Polish Radio Experimental Studio (Bôłt Records); curator of various concerts, festivals and anti-festivals and music programs for exhibitons; member of art group called „Grupa Budapeszt”.