Thanks to Mr. Antonio Nardi from Italy I learned about a new Stabat Mater ‘style’, composed by the Italian singer-songwriter, composer and television host, Franco Simone. Listening to his Symphonic Rock Opera Stabat Mater I was completely flabbergasted by the melodies, the rhythm, the voices, the intensity! Its accessibility is striking, a modern opera with a text from the 13th century. I love it! About his work, Franco Simone says:

Fascinated by the dazzling beauty of the various Stabat Maters delivered to the history of Great Music, first of all those of Rossini and Pergolesi, for about thirty years (it had become a kind of idea fixed) I repeated to my friends that I also wanted to compose a Stabat Mater of mine, without copying anything, simply letting myself be guided by my passion. The story of the pain of the Virgin before the Son on the cross for me has become a metaphor for the pain of an entire humanity lost in a planetary restlessness.

Franco Simone has used the complete Stabat Mater text, all twenty stanza’s are sung. There are ten parts, every movement consists of two stanza’s. He composed his Rock Opera for three voices and orchestra. Franco himself is one of the singers, the other two singers are Anglo-Italian tenor Gianluca Paganelli and rocker Michele Cortese. Unfortunately I could not get or buy a CD. But you can listen and watch the video here: