in brieflive

What Do the Mad Want With an Opera House?

OperaHole: »screen (mad scenes)«

Sune Anderberg. © Alexander Banck-Petersen

Denmark is lacking opera houses, a recent call in Politiken declared. And indeed: with only a single major, rather conservative opera house, we don’t quite make our mark on the grand stage. On the other hand, we can boast a flourishing opera life on the stages outside the established institutions. And with the Copenhagen music collective OperaHole, a new player has now entered the field.

Last week, the two singers and artistic directors Litha Ashforth and Daniel Rosenberg, both raised in the United States, presented OperaHole’s first production: a kind of surprise egg consisting of Rosenberg’s own character study recursion for two actors, the mad scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Peter Maxwell Davies’ 8 Songs for a Mad King – all three performed in one continuous flow in a white commercial film studio.

What was interesting, of course, was the juxtaposition of a short play, a classical scene, and one of the most abrasive monodramas of the last 60 years. The thematic common denominator was madness: Rosenberg, a so-called spieltenor with a wide range and comic talent, first skewered devilish variations of latte-drinking Copenhageners in his play, before coloratura soprano Ashforth slipped in wearing a white chemise soaked in blood and sang Donizetti with nimble desperation and a soft sweetness, accompanied by flute and piano.

Finally came the monodrama with Rosenberg as the mad king, staged as a social-media workshop in which the performance was commented on in a livestream (LeaHan1997: »Not this again«!) and screenshots were pasted together into memes in real time. It was spirited – musically as well – but insular, and the work itself disappeared in the process.

Once the collective’s youthful enthusiasm for new media has settled, OperaHole nevertheless looks like a strong contender to carry on our tradition of playful underground opera.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

in briefrelease

21.05

Emergent Music

Lauri Supponen: »Dwell«

Äänitetuotanto OSK, 01.05

Jakob Kullberg

As an abstract micro manifesto Lauri Supponen describes his interest in »music that inhabits a second space and lingers there«, an invitation for us to dwell in the moment and discover music in its quiet emergence.

»Gaz aux étages«, the first composition on Supponen’s breathtaking album, seems to test this idea as it unfolds with whispered bow strokes devoid of pitch. It is as if the piece itself is an entity wondering if it will prove to be music as it tentatively investigates its own constituent components. A subtle opening to an album that answers this question with clarity in its eponymous second work »Dwell« (tracks 2–5), exploring a fascinating microtonal realm. In virtuoso performances of astonishing accuracy, guitarist Petri Kumela and vocalist Tuuli Lindeberg bring Supponen’s demanding four-movement duo to life. The guitar writing in Dwell recalls Norwegian composer Martin Rane Bauck’s Fretted with Golden Fire with its drone-like microtonal strumming – a connection substantiated by the album notes, which reveal both composers know each other and have collaborated with bass clarinetist Madison Greenstone.

The dwelling-space Supponen offers in »Eau & gaz à tous les étages« and »Opus Nen«, return the listener to a more remote sonic space, reminiscent of the album’s opening albeit with tighter compositional sense. Performed with intensity by Madison Greenstone and baritone saxophonist Sikri Lehko, they consolidate the pervasive feeling that Dwell is a uniquely inspired collaboration.

playlist

09.05

My name is Sven Helbig – would you like to see my playlist?

»Every moment is nothing but the uttermost end of the past. Music makes this edge wide and beautiful.«

Sven Helbig is a German composer and producer known for combining orchestral and choral music with electronic elements and a strong poetic sensibility. A self-taught musician raised in Eisenhüttenstadt, he released his debut album Pocket Symphonies on Deutsche Grammophon to critical acclaim for its emotional depth and formal precision. Helbig has collaborated with ensembles such as the BBC Singers, Fauré Quartett, and Staatskapelle Dresden, as well as with artists like Rammstein and the Pet Shop Boys. He just released REQUIEM A on Deutsche Grammophon. It is a deeply personal and reflective composition, intertwining classical Latin liturgical texts with new ones written by Helbig himself. The work revolves around themes of loss, memory, and the possibility of renewal – with the »A« in the title symbolizing Anfang (beginning) and the belief in a new start after devastation.

playlist

25.04

My name is Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek – would you like to see my playlist?

»Recently, I discovered that when a couple of thousand people clap their thick gloves in minus 30 degrees, it sounds like the softest techno – a freezing space where the cold air turns into a wave of warmth, and we, in a moment of collective devotion, become one with the rhythm, one with the invisible bond that connects us in the warmth of silence. Music is not just sounds, but a vain attempt to capture the infinite, which has always been and always will be.«

Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek has been the editor-in-chief of Seismograf since 2021. He is also a music critic and cultural journalist at Kristeligt Dagblad and Århus Stiftstidende/Avisen Danmark and has over the years written to publications such as Kunsten.nu, Glissando (Poland), Neural (Italy), Raw Vision (UK), Nutida Musik (Sweden), Kunstkritikk (DK/Sweden), Iscene.dk, B.T., and Jazz Special. He is the author (together with Lars Muhl) of the book HVA' SAA! En guidet rutsjebanetur gennem Aarhus – før, nu og i fremtiden (2024) and has also contributed to the anthology on music criticism Man skal høre meget (ed. Thomas Michelsen and Claus Røllum-Larsen, 2024). He is a founder and partner in the Polish-Danish cultural organization Kultur(a), and wherever there is a piano, he will be there, eager to coax a melody from it.

playlist

25.04

My name is Patrick Becker – would you like to see my playlist?

»Music is hope, confusion, and memory talking with each other, leading us toward futures we haven't yet imagined.«

Patrick Becker is co-director of the Wolke Verlag publishing house and co-editor of the contemporary music magazine Positionen.

playlist

24.04

My name is Bastian Zimmermann – would you like to see my playlist?

»A lot is projected onto music and making music – I'm careful, singing doesn't make you more intelligent and certainly doesn't make you a better person. It's like in sexuality. A lot of things go very consciously wrong for some people. Music like sex are means of communication, people come into contact and negotiate with each other and their instruments/tools and meet themselves in it. This is also the case when I listen to music – from every conceivable genre and context, even if I always notice that as a teenager I used to play a lot of jazz guitar.«

Bastian Zimmermann lives in Munich and works freelance in the areas of music and performance. As a dramaturge, he works with artists such as the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop, Yael Ronen and Neo Hülcker. He is editor of the German speaking magazine Positionen – Texts on Current Music and curates projects such as »Music for Hotel Bars« and the festival Music Installations Nuremberg festival. His focus is on social aspects of making music, experimental music concepts and the questioning of bourgeois structures in contemporary music. In Spring 2025 he will take over the Wolke Verlag publishing house for books on music with Patrick Becker.