CIRCLE

Sci-fi multi-medie Chamber Opera
by Finnur Karlsson

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Circle (2021) is a chamber opera for a singer and an ensemble. The piece includes video track and audio recordings throughout the piece.

Circle was constructed as a collage of found videos, recordings and texts with a unifying sci-fi/supernatural theme. The various sources include clips from two different Japanese B-movies; Attack From Space (1965) and Warning from Space (1956), recordings of British1930’s medium Mrs. Meurig Morris and clips and quotes from a speech by American cult leader Marshall Applewhite.

The piece also seeks inspiration from an Icelandic lullaby, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, hymns, space western music and other sci-fi tropes. These disparate videos, recordings, texts and ideas were arranged into six movements that each focus on a different stage of human existence; from conception, to gestation, to childhood, to adulthood and decline, to death and then finally beyond. The piece’s structure and title hints at the idea of the whole cycle being repeated again and again.

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Composer: Finnur Karlsson

Director: Anna Sofie Keller Brandsborg

Soprano: Þórgunnur Anna Örnólfsdóttir

NJYD: Anja Nedremo, saxophone Mikkel Egelund Nielsen, guitar Marie Sønderskov, flute Jonas Weitling, percussion Erik Higgins, double bass

Production: NJYD with support from: Danish Arts Foundation, Koda Culture, Augustinus Foundation, Louis Hansen Foundation, Knud Højgaards Foundation, Aarhus Kommune, Danish-Icelandic Foundation.