His operas, Giorgio Battistelli once explained, were like the roots of a tree, all drawing their strength from the same soil but growing in quite different directions. In the course of the last forty years, an astonishing variety of Battistelli operas has indeed developed - which impressively demonstrate the stylistic versatility of this composer. Some, such as the two Shakespeare operas RICHARD III (2005) and GIULIO CESARE (2021), are large-scale tragedies which, with full orchestra and extreme vocal demands, on the one hand reflect existential violence, but on the other also tie in with traditional formal models. Other Battistelli stage works are of a more experimental nature, such as his EXPERIMENTUM MUNDI, composed from the working noises of craftsmen in his native Rome, with which Battistelli established himself at the forefront of the avant-garde in 1981. Or the chamber opera TEOREMA, created in 1992 for the Munich Biennale and based on the material by Pier Paolo Pasolini, which features silent singers and a narrator. And perhaps nothing characterises this will for constant further development as much as the fact that Battistelli has now, after three decades, returned to the TEOREMA material and written a completely different, full-length work of symphonic dimension on it, which is to have its world premiere on 9 June. Now Giorgio Battistelli has turned 70. Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts!