Opus Avantra

Biography

A unique group in the Italian scene, Opus Avantra mixed together contemporary classical music with avantgarde and a light progressive rock inflience, giving an original result that's often considered too difficult to listen for straight prog rock ears. Their name was obtained from their three main interests, opera, avantgarde and traditional music. Formed in Veneto in 1973 around the nucleus of soprano Donella Del Monaco (the niece of famous tenor Mario Del Monaco), pianist-composer Alfredo Tis...

A unique group in the Italian scene, Opus Avantra mixed together contemporary classical music with avantgarde and a light progressive rock inflience, giving an original result that's often considered too difficult to listen for straight prog rock ears. Their name was obtained from their three main interests, opera, avantgarde and traditional music.

Formed in Veneto in 1973 around the nucleus of soprano Donella Del Monaco (the niece of famous tenor Mario Del Monaco), pianist-composer Alfredo Tisocco, philosopher Giorgio Bisotto and producer Renato Marengo, and aided in the years by many other musicians, the group released their first album in 1974, Opus Avantra - Donella Del Monaco (often referred to as Introspezione, from the title of the first track) on the collectible Trident label.
Usually considered their most accessible work, the album is built on classical-inspired themes with complex arrangements and dominated by the nice soprano voice of singer Del Monaco and good flute playing, with just an instrumental track, Rituale. The band also had a good live activity promoting their album in Veneto and Rome.

Donella Del Monaco was absent on the second album Lord Cromwell (plays suite for seven vices), that follows in the same style as the previous work, being replaced by an American chorus. Former Nuova Idea drummer Paolo Siani played on this album, that like the first one contains some interesting passages for the adventurous listeners.

Both Alfredo Tisocco (along with Gruppo Italiano di Danza Libera in 1975's Katharsis) and Donella Del Monaco (with 12 canzoni da battello in 1977 and Schoenberg Kabarett in 1978) also released individual albums in the same vein, and the duo reunited under the name Opus Avantra for a third album in 1989, Strata, and a CD-only fourth release in 1995, Lyrics.

2008 saw the reunion of Opus Avantra with Donella Del Monaco, Alfredo Tisocco and Giorgio Bisotto, for concerts in Romania and Japan, based on material from all their albums. The line-up also features Valerio Galla (drumes and percussion), Mauro Martello (flute), Anca Elena Botezatu (violin), Ioana Ionescu (violin), Alexandra Butnaru (viola), Violeta Loredana Dumitru (cello), and the show was directly produced by the reborn Cramps, with lights, sound and scenes made by Alan Walter Bedin.
The Tokyo concert was used for the DVD Viaggio immaginario/Live in Tokyo 2008.

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