Volo di notte

• Rivière, director of an airline ( baritone)
• Robineau, Inspector ( bass)
• Pellerin, Pilot ( Tenor)
• Funker (Tenor)
• Leroux, Head of Department ( bass)
• Wife of the pilot Fabien (soprano )
• A voice from afar (soprano )
• Four officers (two tenors, baritone and bass)
• People in the airline ( chorus)

Volo di notte ( German Title: The night flight ) is an opera in one act by Luigi Dallapiccola, who also libretto. This is based on Antoine de Saint- Exupéry's second novel Vol de nuit. The work was premiered on 18 May 1940 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.

Action

The opera is set in the year 1930 at an airport in South America.

Rivière is the head of an airline for postal and courier flights, which is stationed at the airport. He wants to technical progress and economic success of his company at all costs and has therefore introduced night flights to be clearly superior to other transport services such as rail and ship. He also does not hesitate to send its pilots to dangerous weather conditions on the trip.

Just the machine the pilot Pellerin has landed. This was very lucky; because not much was missing, and a storm in the Andes had to crash his plane. The next day, a trans -ocean flight to Europe is on the plan. Although the currently prevailing weather conditions actually require to move this flight to a later date, Rivière insists that Pellerin starts tomorrow morning.

The radio operator reported that he had received a message from the pilot Fabien, who started recently. Powerful gusts of wind caused him to create. He beg to turn back. Rivière is aware of the danger in which the pilot is well aware of, but rejects anyway.

Fabien's wife could not stand it at home. She also mentioned her husband in great danger and demands from his boss to tell him the immediate return. The director but plays down the danger and praises the technological progress, which was unstoppable. Slowly it begins to rumble with the staff of the company. Also inspector Robineau, otherwise a faithful vassal Rivières, now stands up for the discontented men. But his behavior can Rivière only react stubborn. He is now even less inclined to yield to the desire of the staff and the wife of the aircraft.

As Fabien's machine to fly along the coast, it is forced by a storm to a rock and crashes. The pilot sends no sign of life. All are shocked when them this message is delivered. The men want to rebel against the director now. But this again manages to calm his people. Accidents such as the just happened one are now times the price that will ultimately achieve victory.

Music

Dallapiccola used for his composition, although the twelve-tone technique, but this is not dogmatic in his score one. It is always times again is broken by moving melodies, so that even listeners who are of modern music not particularly open-minded, are not too scared.

• Opera by title
• Opera in Italian
• Postal system ( culture)
• Opera from the 20th century
• Opera by Luigi Dallapiccola
• Antoine de Saint -Exupéry
• Music 1940