FABIO ZUFFANTI & VICTORIA HEWARD: MERLIN - THE ROCK OPERA

The only work by signor Zuffanti I really (and very much!) like. After buying the orig Iridea 2CD box from Musea in 2000 (it was advertised as a new album from Finisterre by mistake), I listened to most of the releases by most of Zuffanti's countless projects... Hostsonaten, La Maschera Di Cera, Fabio Zuffanti sensu stricto, La Curva Di Lesmo, L'Ombra Della Sera... sorry if I forgot even something I did listen to, it's impossible to remember all, there're too much of them... (I don't mention Finisterre and Rohmer whose music was mostly composed by Boris Valle, not by Fabio Zuffanti) ...and finally, I got either a weak impression or no impression at all. Basing on my first impression from Merlin, I hoped to get into the work of a new (to me) great composer with cyclopean creativity, but finally found an author of one real masterpiece who produced tons of matrix in addition to it. His first shot was sharpest. And after that, a multiyear flood of routine followed and the shooter's eye got hackneyed. Maybe Zuffanti just works too much? Merlin was (at least to my knowledge) his earliest fully independent experience as a composer. As a result, he produced two hours of very fresh, romantic, picturesque, inventive, soft, refined and - on the other hand - really complex, 'multi-component' music, highly inspired and highly professional. When I listened to it first more than 20 years ago, I felt a sort of 'bilateral' enjoyment, not only aesthetic but also 'almost physical joy' (as Nikolay Gumilyov would say). And I still experience the same feelings when I listen to Merlin now. What came later was probably more 'progressive' and more '70s-like' but much less interesting musically, perhaps with the only exception of La Curva Di Lesmo.