Anna Thorvaldsdottir: UR

Far North, Gardabaer, Iceland

In August 2013 a team of adventure driven artists went on the first creative expedition to Greenland. The purpose was to build a strong tie between a collective of artists that together will develop a new opera. In the far north the predefined structures and traditions that often dictate the creative process are mainly absent. Here everything is possible. This team of artists seeks to explore and expand the concept of operatic theatre in the north and tap into the multifaceted dimensions that are latent in areas that have no operatic tradition, but whose strong instinct for music and storytelling has been moulded by survival in spectacularly beautiful, yet hostile natural surroundings. The new work will be created over a period of two years in sessions in Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Germany. During the developmental phase and sessions in Greenland the team will also engage in activities such as preparatory workshops with young actors of the Theatre Academy in Nuuk, as well as working with local singers and musicians.
The development of the work is done in collaboration with Ultima Oslo ContemporaryMusic Festival, Dark Music Days Reykjavík, The National Theatre of Greenland and Mai Festspiele Wiesbaden.
Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s impressions after the first expedition to Greenland:
“Musically, listening to the calving icebergs contrasted with the silence in the landscape, and observing the solidness of the earth is a magnificent inspiration.
The dramatic contrast between the solid mountains of the land and the oceanic figures of ice that subtly move each day is such a dynamic and powerful artistic impression. The grand solid figures, these unimaginably big and strong blocks of ice that seem solid and steady, graciously move each day so that on one hand you have this solid never changing landscape of the earth versus the ever changing view of the ocean. The overpowering surrounding silence in the landscape to which the icebergs lend an occasional rhythmic accompaniment is so powerful that in the presence of these grand figures you feel like whispering out of respect to nature”.

World Premiere
September 11/12, 2015
Theater Trier, Germany

September 18 and 19, 2015
ULTIMA - Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Oslo, Norway

28. and 31. Oktober 2015
CULTURESCAPES Festival, Suisse

May 2016
Dark Music Days, Reykjavik, Island,
Beijing Modern Music Festival, China
 

Further information:
www.farnorth.is