2025 stock ** "Intolleranza 1960 was Luigi Nono's first work for the opera stage and is a flaming protest against intolerance and oppression and the violation of human dignity. The year in the title refers to the time of the work's origin. Nono himself said of this work that it "did mark a beginning for me, but in no sense did it constitute a tabula rasa or in response to 'divine inspiration'". It was commissioned for the 1961 Venice Biennale by its director Mario Labroca. The first performance was conducted by Bruno Maderna on 13 April 1961 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The stage design was by the radical painter Emilio Vedova, a friend of Nono's. The premiere was disrupted by neo-fascists, who shouted Viva la polizia during the torture scene. Nono's opponents accused him of poisoning Italian music. (Nono revised the work into a one-act version for a 1974 performance.) A performance by the Boston Opera in 1964 was suppressed by the John Birch Society and other right-wing activists. It was subsequently presented the following year, with Maderna conducting Sarah Caldwell's production, with Beverly Sills in the cast."