Code: Unknown, Opera by N. Sani
Rome's Teatro Nazionale hosts Code: Unknown, an opera by the Italian composer Nicola Sani. Presented by the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, this work is the third and final stage of a three-part project developed through Code Unknown I in 2025 and Code Unknown II in 2026. Each stage explores themes of communication, isolation and the difficulty of connecting with others, often through electronically generated and manipulated sound. Sani specialised with Karlheinz Stockhausen, the renowned German composer who pioneered electronic and electroacoustic music in the 20th century, whose influence is evident throughout the first two stages of the project.
Born in Ferrara in 1961, Sani's past works include Falcone, il tempo sospeso del volo, an opera inspired by the life and assassination of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, alongside numerous works of musical theatre and electronic music. Code: Unknown continues Sani's long-standing exploration of music in conjunction with electronic and visual media. His career has included collaborations with leading figures in film, video and visual art, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Nam June Paik and collectives such as Studio Azzurro.
Franco Ripa di Meana provided the libretto for the three stages of Code: Unknown, culminating in the full opera. The Italian director and writer began his career as an actor before working as an assistant director at La Scala and subsequently directing productions at major opera houses in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. His previous collaboration with Sani includes the libretto for Sani's Falcone opera. Ripa di Meana also directs the world-premiere production of Code: Unknown.
When Code Unknown I received its world premiere on 31 October 2025 at Studio 104 of the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique in Paris, there were no live singers or instrumentalists on stage. Instead, the acousmatic production relied on music being played through an immersive system of 80 loudspeakers. At its centre was the recorded voice of Raphaëlle Maillard, a young member of the Maîtrise de Radio France, fragmented and electronically manipulated to represent an autistic son's 'inner voice'.
This approach was developed further in Code Unknown II, recorded for Radio France in Paris in March 2026 and broadcast the following month. The electronic material was enhanced by two live vocalists, plus an instrumental ensemble including an Armenian duduk, clarinets, a trumpet, a cello, a double bass, percussion and a piano. Presented in five fragments, the work explored encounters between a father and son, as well as broader questions surrounding autism. Together, these first two stages established the electronic, vocal and instrumental language that Sani later developed into a full-length stage opera, Code: Unknown.
At Teatro Nazionale in Rome, Code: Unknown explores the inner world of an autistic child and the challenges of human communication through contemporary opera.