Brothers (opera)
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| Title: | Brothers |
| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Daníel Bjarnason |
| Libretto : | Kerstin Perski |
| Literary source: | Susanne Bier , Anders Thomas Jensen : Brothers - Between Brothers |
| Premiere: | 16th August 2017 |
| Place of premiere: | Musikhuset Aarhus |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Early 21st century |
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Brothers (German: "Brothers") is an opera in three acts by Daníel Bjarnason (music) with a libretto by Kerstin Perski based on the film drama Brothers - Between Brothers by Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen . It was premiered on August 16, 2017 by the Danish National Opera at Musikhuset Aarhus .
action
first act
Prolog. The opera begins with a reflective choir about the meaningfulness of wars and their effects on people (“Man goes to war in a faraway place”). The soldiers Michael and Peter say goodbye to their families before their mission in Afghanistan: Michael to his wife Sarah and his little daughter Nadia and Peter to his pregnant wife Anna. Michael promises Nadia to be back for her birthday. The Colonel swears the soldiers to fight the enemies of freedom.
Scene 1. Michael and Peter's helicopter is shot down (chorus: “Time halted”). The two are believed dead and a memorial service is held in the presence of the grieving families. Michael's father berates his younger son Jamie as a criminal good-for-nothing. He would have preferred if he had died instead of his brother. After the others leave, Sarah tries to comfort her daughter.
Interlude. Choir: "In the twilight hour, the world stripped bare."
Scene 2. One night, Jamie is drunk and seeks help from Sarah after he was injured in a brawl. As she cleans his wound, Jamie complains about his father, who sent Michael to war instead of going himself, and treated his two sons very unequally. Sarah tries to calm him down, but suffers from the loss of her husband herself. After a violent emotional outburst, Jamie and Sarah embrace.
Second act
Scene 3. Contrary to expectations, Michael survived. He returns to his family. Anna, who has meanwhile given birth to her child, hopes that Peter will also come back (Anna: "Mary had a little lamb").
Scene 4. The Colonel asks Michael about his experiences in captivity. Above all, he wants to know whether he saw any other survivors there. Michael denies that.
Scene 5. Michael did not return from his war effort without emotional damage (chorus: “Beyond time, moving through haze”). He hears voices and sees ghostly figures. The spirit of Peter reminds him of his promise not to leave him alone.
Scene 6. When Nadia wants to show her father a picture she has painted, he doesn't even look at it, he just wants to spend a week alone by her side. Nadia doesn't understand his behavior.
Scene 7. Jamie cares a lot about his niece Nadia now. He fixes her swing and plays with her. His relationship with Sarah is also getting closer.
Scene 8. That doesn't go unnoticed by Michael. He reacts with jealousy and insults against his brother and even becomes aggressive against Nadia. When Sarah reproaches him about it, he promises to make amends later. But Nadia just looks at him in silence. Michael continues to suffer from his memories and begins to drink (chorus: “Another day sucked up by darkness”).
Scene 9. As Sarah tries to calm her husband down, he speaks absentmindedly about killing "him". Sarah thinks Michael is talking about Jamie and assumes he was having a nightmare. However, he continues to talk about guilt. Suddenly he grabs Sarah's throat and chokes her. Startled at himself, he runs out.
Scene 10. In another conversation with the Colonel, Michael admits that he was captured together with Peter. He was only alone at the end of the imprisonment. The Colonel interrupts him by saying that feelings are a civilian privilege. As a soldier, he must resist them. He had done his duty in action and must now find his way back to life.
Scene 11. While Michael decides to seek solace from his family, Sarah pays a visit to Jamie. The two realize how much they long for each other. They kiss.
Third act
Scene 12. Nadia's birthday party starts harmoniously at first, but when Michael is asked by his mother whether he has already visited Peter's widow, he loses control. He sees Peter's ghost again, flees outside and remembers what happened before he was saved.
Scene 13. Anna sings “Mary had a little lamb” again when Michael comes up to her and tells her that Peter and him were captured. Only his love for her kept him alive. Anna picks up her song again with changed lyrics: "Michael had a little lad".
Scene 14. Michael has returned to the birthday party. He is confused and thinks that Peter is also there. As if in a trance, he speaks to him while he relives his escape (chorus: “He is still there”).
Scene 15. In the cell in Afghanistan, Peter is completely nervous. He begs Michael not to leave him behind. However, Michael sees no way of taking him with him in this state. Peter desperately clings to Michael.
Scene 16. Nadja moans about the course of her celebration. She exclaims that her father is only acting so strangely because her mother and Jamie keep kissing.
Scene 17. Sarah asks Michael to finally tell everything. He admits that he saw no other option in the cell than to kill Michael. That was the only way he could escape himself.
Scene 18. The choir sings about the beginning of the morning (choir: "Wake of dawn").
layout
In order to bring the plot of the cinematic original onto the opera stage, the authors decided to "present the same story with the essential elements of the film on the stage, but without obsessively following the narrative structure of the film". They added a choir part that commented on the plot like the ancient Greek choir . In contrast to the original, the events in Afghanistan are not shown directly, but as a relived memory of Michael.
The music is characterized by a great variety of styles, ranging "from late romantic free-tonal harmony to serial, avant-garde techniques with extreme, cacophonic dissonances".
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (2nd also alto flute, 3rd also piccolo and bass flute), two oboes (2nd also cor anglais ), three clarinets in Bb (2nd also Eb clarinet , 3rd also bass clarinet ), two bassoons ( 2nd also English horn ) also contrabassoon )
- Brass : four horns in F, three trumpets in C and Bb, two trombones , bass trombone , tuba
- Timpani , drums (three players): bass drum , congas , crotales , glass harp / glockenspiel , gongs , gravel box, steel güiro , snare drum / hanging cymbal / tam-tam , temple blocks , tenor drum, tom toms , triangle , tubular bells / vibraphone / xylophone
- Piano , celesta
- Strings : at least ten violins 1, eight violins 2, eight violas , six cellos , five double basses
Work history
Brothers is the first opera by the Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason . It was commissioned by the Danish National Opera / Den Jyske Opera . The plot is based on the 2004 Danish drama Brothers - Between Brothers by Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen . Kerstin Perski wrote the libretto . Bjarnason composed the music during his time as “Artist in Residence” with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra .
The world premiere took place on August 16, 2017 in the Musikhuset in Aarhus , which this year was the European Capital of Culture . The Aarhus Symphony Orchestra played under the direction of André de Ridder . Directed by Kasper Holten , the stage and equipment came from Steffen Aarfing and the lighting design from Ellen Ruge. The choir of the Danish National Opera sang. The soloists were Jacques Imbrailo (Michael), Marie Arnet (Sarah) , Joel Annmo (Jamie), James Laing (Peter), Dénise Beck (Anna), Ólafur Kjartan Sigurðarson (Colonel), Anne Margrethe Dahl (mother), Jakob Christian Zethner (Father), Selma Buch Ørum Villumsen (Nadia). The performance was sold out and was highly praised by the public and critics. The Icelandic Music Awards 2018 named the opera “Composition of the Year” and Bjarnason “Music Artist of the Year”. The reviewer for Deutschlandfunk also found “the theatrical power of the music and the moving scenic tension” convincing and assessed the work as “a very coherent transfer of the film genre to the opera genre”.
From June 9, 2018, the Icelandic Opera took over the production with performances at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík. Oddur Arnþór Jónsson sang the role of Michael, Elmar Gilbertsson sang Jamie, Þóra Einarsdóttir sang Anna, Hanna Dóra Sturludóttir sang mother and Paul Carey Jones sang Colonel. The rest of the vocal line-up remained unchanged.
There was another performance on July 2, 2019 as part of the Armel Opera Festival in Müpa Budapest . It was broadcast live as a video stream from Arte Concert on the Internet.
Recordings
- July 2, 2019 - Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason (conductor), Kasper Holten (director), Steffen Aarfing (stage and equipment), Ellen Ruge (lighting design), Alba Regia Symphony Orchestra, choir of the Icelandic Opera.
Oddur Arnþór Jónsson (Michael), Marie Arnet (Sarah), Joel Annmo (Jamie), James Laing (Peter), Þóra Einarsdóttir (Anna), Ólafur Kjartan Sigurðarson (Colonel), Hanna Dóra Sturludóttir (mother), Jakob Christian Zethner (father ), Selma Buch Ørum Villumsen (Nadia).
Video; live from the Armel Opera Festival .
Video stream at Arte Concert .
Web links
- Work information and video at Arte Concert , video available until January 1, 2020
- View score EP 73002 from Edition Peters at Issuu
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Elisabeth Richter: Aarhus Capital of Culture - world premiere of the opera “Brødre”. In: Deutschlandfunk , August 17, 2017, accessed on July 10, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d e Indication in the score.
- ^ A b Brothers - The Opera by Daniel Bjarnason. Information on production in Iceland on listahatid.is, accessed on July 10, 2019.
- ↑ a b c work information from Arte Concert , accessed on July 10, 2019.
- ↑ a b Information on production in Iceland 2018 at opera.is, accessed on July 10, 2019.
- ↑ Ella Navarro: Opera review: Brothers, an intense dramatic performance. Review of the world premiere in Aarhus 2017 at jutlandstation.dk, August 18, 2018, accessed on July 10, 2019.