FAUSTO ROMITELLI An Index of Metals
MICHAL RATAJ A Game of Chess (2026), commissioned by the Brno Contemporary Orchestra

Kaoko Amano soprano
BCO – Brno Contemporary Orchestra
conductor Pavel Šnajdr

Fausto Romitelli’s spectacular video‑opera, An Index of Metals expands spectral principles into the multimedia domain, fusing them with the aesthetics of psychedelic rock, noise and electronic music. The composer envisioned the work as transcending the boundaries of opera. He sought to create a “total perceptual experience” where sound, image and light merge into a hypnotic, all‑encompassing flow. Here Romitelli indulges his fascination with the materiality of sound; noting that he abandons the traditional operatic narrative, what unfolds here is not a plot but the transformation of sound, image and energy. Presented in the uncompromising urban setting of a disused underground car park near Bobycentrum, with its raw architecture and distinctive acoustics, the performance space serves not merely as a backdrop but as an active partner, blending with the image and sound into a single immersive whole.

Whilst Romitelli expands his compositional work with sound towards audiovisual and physical experiences, Michal Rataj (*1975) turns his attention in his new composition to another frontier of composition – the very organisation of musical time and the shifting relationship between the score, the performers and the rules of the piece. In his work, Rataj combines acoustic and electronic music, sound performances, film and intermedia works. For more than twenty years, he worked as a music director, producer and sound designer at Czech Radio, where he specialised in radio art and radio productions. He is the composer of chamber, orchestral and electronic music, as well as the music for dozens of films and television projects. He has collaborated for many years with the director Robert Sedláček; he gained international attention for his music for the Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody vs Putin.

Rataj introduces his new composition A Game of Chess (2026), commissioned by the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, with the following words: “It is, above all, a game. It is by no means conceptual; it is genuine, and it contains the joy that arises between two players whenever we shift from ordinary time to the time of the game. Game time has its own rules and its own flow, just like music – it is not physical; it is, above all, mysterious. A Game of Chess brings about such a transformation in the relationships between the musicians and the conductor. He is usually the one who governs musical time. Here, however, his power is overshadowed by the logic of a chess game. For the game’s time unfolds according to a different dynamic, and with every game a different temporal progression of the score emerges. The mutual musical exchange between two groups of players, imaginatively linked by the piano, can be full of surprising twists and turns, as well as silence, tension and release. Ultimately, however, it is the chess players who, through the dynamics of their game, propel the entire ensemble forward through musical time. The composition pays tribute to all composers – whether well-known, lesser-known or lost to time – who, in various ways, escape the dominance of the written score. The creation of the piece’s dynamic score was inspired by the chess match between Magnus Carlsen and Dmitry Kollars on 29 January 2026, which opened with the Vienna Game and a variation named after Ernst Falkbeer, a native of Brno.”

Kaoko Amano was born in Tokyo; she studied singing and music education at Tokyo Gakugei University and subsequently completed postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She is deeply committed to contemporary music and has taken part in numerous world premieres by internationally renowned composers, including at the Wien Modern, Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Festival Imago Dei, Carinthian Summer and Klangspuren Schwaz festivals. She has performed at major venues such as the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the ORF Radio-Kulturhaus and the Arnold Schönberg Centre. In recent years, she has appeared as a guest performer at the Volkstheater Wien and Schauspiel Köln, and at the Musiktheatertage Wien 2026 she sang the lead role in the world premiere of *The Sailmaker’s Wife*. She regularly collaborates with institutions and ensembles such as IGNM, ÖGZM, Ensemble Phace, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, ensemble XXI. jahrhundert, Ensemble Reconsil and Schallfeld Ensemble. She has also appeared at international festivals of contemporary music, including Ultraschall Berlin, the PAN Music Festival in Seoul, Musica Electronica Nova in Wrocław, Tonlagen in Dresden and the Novi Festival in Zagreb. She is a member of the Ensemble Platypus and the Black Page Orchestra.