The video trilogy Opus Magnus is based on three fragments of the homonymous opera composed by Manuel Durao in 2016. Freely inspired by the Libretto written by Daniel Schmit, Nicola Piccini stages the events that weave together the stories of the three main characters, intentionally reinterpreting parts of the events that form the narrative center of the work.
Through a process of decontextualization and redefinition of meaning of the individual episodes, the viewer is offered an alternative and personal reading of the story, animated by a radically antithetical spirit. In the three videos, the structural, contextual, compositional and rhythmic aspects underlying the original story are reworked in open contradiction to the first version of the work. The result of this transition is an independent body of work that stands on its own, but nevertheless finds its complete realization in the open dialogue with the source that originated it.

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“Isn’t life perfectly arranged? There is an antidote available for everything. What’s dirty can be cleaned. No sorrow is ever too great to be washed away.There is nothing as stubborn as that which belongs to life. What was once there will return and always, just when it’s at its loveliest, it will come along the path, pull the grief forth, whether he wants to or not.
Nicola Piccini's filmic triptych does not fail to prove that there is a happy ending for all that is tripartite. Everything always has to go well. It’s a great miracle that even in this little film, the great wonders of life find an adequate expression."  ( Daniel Schmidt, 2016 )