"Devastatingly beautiful"
Folkbladet
"An absolutely fantastic performance ... this is nothing like anything else"
Swedish Radio, P4.
"A genuine, professional teamwork with high artistic ambitions."
"Norrlandsoperan really dared to experiment!"
Västerbottens-Kuriren
"Bach's wonderful music gets a mysterious framing"
Expressen
Commissioned from: Norrlandsoperan
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach
Concept/choreography/direction: Jon R Skulberg
Conductor/musical arrangements: Olof Boman
Composition new music: Siri Jennefelt and Thomas Jennefelt
Set design: Maja Ziska
Lighting design: Kerstin Weimers
Costume design: Bente Rolandsdotter
Dramaturgy: Birgit Berndt
Scenography assistant: Olga Regitze Dyrløv Høegh
Vocals & dancers: Melis Jaatinen, Yared Tilahun Cederlund, Klara Ek, Kenzo Kusuda, Arash Azarbad, Linda Blomqvist, Joanna Holewa Chrona, Risa Kojima
Norrlandsoperan choir
Norrlandsoperan Symphony orchestra
‘We - an unknown opera of Bach?’ is about the human dimension of a collective and how to reject the hierarchy between individual and collective - a choir and a soloist. How the individual is only legitimized by the collective. The project is a universal investigation and a democratic interpretation of ‘the sacred’ in Bach's music.
In ´We - an unknown opera of Bach?´ we will search for a movement language where different bodies can co-exist and be cohesive. Not by performing, or repeating gestures in unison, but by creating collective awareness around the potential of each body – in their abilities and limitations. The choir, dancers, and soloists, will create a holistic image in motion in unison with the music and light – an image that will oscillate between the known and the unknown. The everyday and the transcendent.
