For my parts it seems like 2015 will be the year of the opera. I am currently working on a project commissioned and produced by the Far North Cultural Network. The project is a chamber opera which will be premiered in Theater Trier in Germany in September 2015, and will be featured in other places following the premiere, e.g. at the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival in Norway, and at Dark Music Days in Reykjavik, Iceland in early 2016.
Working title UR__
The work features 3 voices, 1 actor, grand piano and an ensemble of 12 performers. Without wanting to say too much while the work is still in progress, here is a small - admittedly abstract - window into it: The music invites an intimate setting and the subject is centered around an ambiguous and atmospheric narrative, spoken through sequences of musical imagery where language merges with music in sound and expression. Language becomes an instrument where elements of various languages are dispersed and recombined, generating a strained and fragmented idiolect. In the work, “characters” and “roles” merge but are two different things.
The opera will be directed by Thorleifur Orn Arnarsson and Anna Rún Tryggvadóttir will be doing the stage design. I am very much looking forward to our work together. The narrative is constructed by Anna Thorvaldsdottir and the text is a combination of words and phonetic textures by Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Mette Karlsvik.
Needless to say I am very excited to meet and work with all the amazing people who will be a part of the project. We have our first workshop together coming up in the last week of January, which will conclude with an open workshop at the Dark Music Days Festival at Harpa in Reykjavik on January 31st - everyone is welcome to attend!