MINING DISASTER

“Mining Disaster'' commemorates the worst mining catastrophe in Italy: the disaster of Arsia (Liburnia). At dawn on 28 February 1940, 186 miners lost their lives in the coalmines of Arsia. Sadly, for many years the population avoided talking about this terrible tragedy in an attempt to prevent the reemergence of pain and of a sense of powerlessness in those who survived. ''Mining Disaster'' with its harsh and powerful musical language remembers the tragedy of these workers, a drama that was not the last and most likely will be followed by others in such a dangerous job. The composer imagined the disaster through the innocent eyes of a child who found himself inside the mine at the moment of the accident. The long introduction portrays the child’s intuition that something bad is about to happen. After a moment of intense fear arrives the explosion: an outburst of heavy and unrestrained sounds depicts the chaos and total confusion that pervade the place … the child understands himself to be the only survivor and, finding his way among the debris, full of hope, he manages to get out from that hell. But turning around with teary eyes he sees what is left after the catastrophe: a ''Mining Disaster!''