'L’imbalsamatore' (2001-2002) was first performed at the Almeida Theatre in London with the title 'The Embalmer'. As a genre, it recalls his previous works 'Aphrodite' ( 1983) and 'Frau Frankenstein' (1997-98), although here we find an actor as the exclusive protagonist. The unprecedented and reckless ensemble is composed by woodwinds and dark brasses, a vast set of percussion, a midi keyboard, cellos, double basses and elaborations with live electronics. Giorgio Battistelli continues to renew (and to shake) contemporary musical theatre. From the outset with the famous 'Experimentum Mundi', Battistelli has accepted and surpassed the legacy of Stockhausen and of certain post-modernist orientations of Kagel, aiming at a theatre which lives and burns in the very moment, although organised into rigorous and recognisable formal structures.