AMSICORA

According to the historian Tito Livio, Amsicora would have been a Sardinian-Punic landowner originally from Cornus (city-state in which he was supreme magistrate) named in the chronicles of the time for having promoted the revolt that in 215 BC saw the Sardinians oppose the Romans.
The plan for victory envisaged an agreement with the internal populations of Sardinia, the “Sardi Pelliti,” while the senators of Cornus, a city that stood in the area of today’s Cuglieri, asked for the intervention of allied Carthage. The ten thousand soldiers, sent on Carthaginian ships and led by Hasdrubal, were however pushed by the winds towards the Balearic Islands.
In Cagliari, meanwhile, two legions of Romans brought together by Tito Manlio Torquato, were ready to proceed towards Cornus. In vain Josto - son of Amsicora - tried to stop his coming: the decision not to wait for the arrival of the reinforcements sought by his father cost him his life in the final battle near Decimomannu. Hasdrubal also fell with him. Legend has it that Amsicora managed to find refuge in the inland areas of the island. Heartbroken by pain for the loss of his son, he took his own life at night so that no one could make him desist from his gesture.
The piece rhapsodically recounts the events described through a series of musical vignettes: Landing in Sardinia, The Sea (the main themes are introduced through the effects of the sea and the aleatoric sounds of the clarinets), Popular Festival, Roman Legions, Blues (a transformation of the previous theme, which symbolically represents the attempt to rebel against the Romans), Amsicora, Iosto, The Battle (all the main themes reappear), The Sea and End Credits (a reprise of the dance of the Popular Festival).