The strangest thing happened today. We had just left the house, heading over to Christina the Dog Minder, and turning the corner when, suddenly, spread across the road, was a huge pack of dogs and humans. They opened like the Red Sea before Moses and Mirinda slowed to an absolute crawl. It was all completely unexpected.
Mind you, it wasn’t the only strange and unexpected thing to happen today.
We were off to the opera. And Mirinda enjoyed it.
The opera was a version of the Selma Lagerlöf novel, Herr Arnes penningar and this was its debut season. The music was composed by Peter Nordahl and the libretto by Sara Bergmark Elfgren. It premiered on 18 September 2024.
We went as a result of Nicoline finding out about the performance after we saw the Västanå Theatre version back in July. So KSP, Jonas, Mary Ann, Birgitta, Mirinda and I headed off to the Folkopera on Soder. (For reasons I won’t go into, Nicoline couldn’t go and Marie took her ticket.)
I thought the performance was excellent. The singing, the orchestra, the score, were all marvellous. Mirinda was expecting bad but we witnessed very good, so there was a lot relief. For my wife, at least.
If I have any criticism, it would be about the beginning. I think there was a lost opportunity for a big opening; maybe a sort of entr’acte during the overture. A sudden, explosive scene showing the massacre at the start of the story. Rather than have the two women telling the story we could have witnessed the tragedy instead.
Still, I enjoyed, if that’s the correct word, the tragedy of the story, sung in unrelenting gloom and doom. And, of course, there was the ghostly apparition that was the fosterdotter. As KSP said, the fosterdotter was named in this version. She was Sigrid.
Looking like the evil girl in The Ring, Sigrid (Ebba Lejonclou) shuffled menacingly across the stage. She was all long, lank hair and blood stained nightdress, scaring the bejesus out of the horrid Sir Archie. She did a fair old job of frightening Elsalill (Tessan-Maria Lehmussaari) as well.
Both the young women sang beautifully as did Sir Archie (Bernt Ola Volungholen) while looking a bit like an extra from The Lord of the Rings movies. I don’t mean that as a bad thing. Mind you, he was dwarfed by the magnificent giant that was Sir Reginald (Kristoffer Töyrä) so that helped put me in mind of Gimli.
One of my favourite bits was the fact that the stage was dominated by women. The female chorus of, firstly fish cleaners then some sort of religious fanatics, was superb. Of particular note were Ulrika Tenstam and Rebecka Elsgard, both of whom had very powerful voices full of emotion and intent.
The old boat captain, his craft frozen in the river, was ably played by Olle Persson. As he appeared Mirinda whispered in my ear that that was my part. I guess I’m a bit too old for the romantic lead these days. To be fair, I really liked his hair extension plaits.
All in all, an excellent cast and performance.
My opinion, however, was not universally shared. Birgitta, Mary Ann and Marie all thought it was too monotonal with no lightness to relieve the gloom. This is true but I think that’s true of the book so, isn’t that a fair adaptation?
The one bad thing, in my opinion, was the comical hoisting of the model boat. If anyone needed a bit of lightness at the end of the opera, this was well provided for by this weird vision of a boat flying off into the sky. An odd choice.
