Nyheter

—————
Cirkus is New Opera Co’s third work. It began to be written in autumn 2010 and premiered in the spring of 2012. With Cirkus Niklas Rydén wanted to try the monologue form and examine new-opera ability to credibly convey and carry strong melodramatic feelings of existential nature.

Cirkus is about a woman who has experienced losing everything several times. She grew up in the circus. Parents were trapeze stars but died in an accident. She abandoned her own trapeze career. She married a knife thrower and became his target girl in an act that toured throughout the world. After another accident they both abandoned circus completely and started a mine together. Now it is also gone, as is he. Now she stands here and is processing all that has been. Especially everything that happened in the relationship. She wants to move on. But is it possible?

Cirkus is a monologue that is one hour and forty-five minutes, 105 minutes. The team behind the set was long uncertain of how a lonely singer could fill the scene for a so long time. But it went beyond all expectations and reactions from both press and audiences has been overwhelmingly. The process leading to the final result was long, and not least, the text went through several thorough revisions, including from a gender perspective.

Cirkus was filmed at Atalante both the spring and fall of 2012, and visited the Orion Theatre in October 2012.

Links:
Reviews (swedish)
Libretto (swedish)
Read all about the process (swedish)

See full Cirkus performance from 2012 at Atalante in Göteborg.

Akt 1

See film from Orionteatern in Stockholm: Akt 1, Akt 2

Participants in the orginal performance:
Libretto, music, musical director – Niklas Rydén
Song –  Sofia My Fryklund
Choreography, direction –  Eva Ingemarsson
Set design –  Cajsa Branchetti-Hallberg, Niklas Rydén
Costume –  Cajsa Branchetti-Hallberg
Light design –  Viktor Wendin
Piano, rehearsal –  David Sperling-Bolander
Violin – Karin Wiberg
Percussion –  Ebba Westerberg
Violincello –  Johannes Bergion
Production –  Luisa Denward, Sofia Åhrman

Party in the Villa, Vi i villa,  was written in 2008 and is a chamber opera about two couples who meet one evening to have a party in a villa in the suburb. Everything is nice and cozy, they all want a nice evening, but all the time the facades are cracking and what’s behind trickles out, sometimes between the lines, felt in the atmosphere, sometimes pronounced and confrontational. The longer the evening suffers and the bottles are emptied, the more comes out of trauma, grief, disappointment, aggression and the various longings all carry. Often, without the ability to process emotionally.

Party in the Villa grew out of a creative process in which the entire ensemble improvised, shared memories and experiences, talked and discussed topics lice partner relationships, life projects, to have/not have children, to have the house, wanting to show a positive wiev on life despite all the difficult, that is also a reality.

After this process Niklas wrote the libretto and music. The libretto consists entirely of material from the process and the work in progress with everyone in the group.

Party in the Villa premiered in 2008 and was played again in 2010 in a completely reworked version.

There is an extensive blog from the process as possible to see here.

See Party in the Villa full performance from 2008. (swedish)

Uppvind, Upwind, was NewOpera CO’s first performance. It was created in 2006 through a collective process in which the visual artist Jim Berggren, choreographer Minna Kiper and composer Niklas Rydén started parallel processes in the group. Niklas Rydén then wrote the libretto and music for this NewOpera CO’s first new-opera, which is kind of a visual art cabaret with dancers, soloists, choir, projections, music and lectures.

The story takes place in a small Swedish town where a middle-aged man and woman are sitting talking in a cafe. They have had a relationship that was complicated. The woman had a son with another man. The son has just died during military service in Afghanistan. Outside, in the city, there is a hostage drama going on, perhaps a terrorist attack. At the cafe appears the nasty little girl who can fly up in the roof. She tells uncomfortable truths about the mankind and get good help from one of the seven white mice she is carrying with her them and who runs out in the cafe. After three acts and lots of episodes everything explodes. Just the mouse and the girl remains. Still in the world.

Upwind premiered in 2006 and was rebuilt in 2007 in a revised version.

There is a blog from the process with much more info and links to reviews, libretto and films. It is available to view here. (swedish)

Se Uppvind full performance 2006. (swedish)

Team

Text, music – Niklas Rydén
Images, projections – Jim Berggren, Michel Droetto
Movement – Minna Kiper
She – Malin Dahlström
He – Gustaf Karlöf
The girl – Lisen Rylander
The Mous – Niklas Rydén
Song/percussion – Magnus Boqvist
Song/bass – Magnus Bergström
Song/violin – Livet Nord (2007)
Song/violincello – Emma Nordlund (2007)
Dance – Minna Kiper, Soledad Howe, Klara Rygielski
Choir – Uncas Rydén, Anna Wemmert Clausen, Anders Korobczynski
Costume – Nonno Nordqvist
Light – Viktor Wendin
Assistant directors – Anna Ulén, Annkatrin Meyerson
Sound – Pär Bengtsson
Production – Kalle Bäccman, Emma Rygielski