A song cycle for soprano, piano/keyboard and projected drawings

Øyvind Torvund: composition, text, drawings
Juliet Fraser: soprano

Mark Knoop: piano, keyboard, technical

Commissioned by Münchener Biennale für Neues Musiktheater (2022). Duration: 50 minutes.

In this piece, the audience is presented with a series of ambitious, large scale plans for operas, impossible to realize, with ideas that defy the laws of physics and acoustics. Many of the ideas centre around the themes of communicating with the past, with people in other rooms and other dimensions. The plans are presented with drawings and sketches, simple animation and text projected on a screen. The live music by soprano and keyboard/piano is expanded with pre-recorded material and electronics. The expression is intended to be open, unfinished, with the sketch as the main form, leaving the final result in the imagination of the audience.

PERFORMANCES

Munich Biennale (2022)

Borealis, Bergen (2023)

MaerzMusik, Berlin (2023)

Darmstadt Festival (2023)

New and Newest Music Festival, Istanbul (2024)

Aspekte Festival, Salzburg (2024)

Only Connect, Oslo (2024)

TRANSIT Festival, Leuven (2024)

Klangpol, Oldenburg (2025)

Only Connect, Stavanger (2025)

Time of Music, Viitasaari (2025)

+ more dates coming...