Konserthuset Stockholm

Nina Stemme! Without the slightest hesitation, she is one of Sweden’s strongest shining stars of opera on the global level. In recent years, she has appeared on stages including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, Vienna State Opera, Opera Bastille in Paris, Royal Opera House in London and opera houses in Stockholm, Zürich, Munich, Barcelona, Houston and San Francisco. She often appears in Wagner roles, such as Isolde in Tristan and Isolde, Brünnhilde in The Ring of the Nibelung and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser.

Together with Swedish Katarina Karnéus and German Johannes Martin Kränzle – who are also internationally acclaimed – we will experience two one-act operas: Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung (with Karnéus) and Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (with Stemme and Kränzle).

The text and music in Bluebeard’s Castle are strongly influenced by contemporary symbolism and the ideas of Sigmund Freud, something it shares with Schoenberg’s Erwartung to the utmost degree, an opera with unique inherent drama and a distinctive monologue. They are often performed together, which is precisely the case at this concert. The basis for the libretto in Erwartung came from Shoenberg’s own life. His wife Mathilde left him for an affair with the young artist Richard Gerstl, but after a while she chose to come back to Schoenberg. Gerstl hanged himself shortly thereafter in front of a mirror in his studio.

After Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu fell and fractured his skull, it became strenuous for him to hold multiple parts in his mind at once. He began composing music in a smaller format, which resulted, among other pieces, in Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola. Martinu, who was highly interested in older music, truly takes advantage of the full potential of these two instruments in these pieces.

At approximately the same time, around 1940, Rebecca Clarke composed her Dumka for Violin, Viola and Piano. The piece has echoes of Brahms’ Piano Quartet Op. 25. Dumka refers to a type of Slavic ballad and the term has its roots in Ukraine.

J.S. Bach’s two-part inventions were originally composed to help his son Wilhelm Friedemann practice his piano-playing and polyphony. They were arranged by violin virtuoso Ferdinand David, who was very familiar with Bach’s music.                     

Anna Stefánsson has been a member of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005 and also performs with the Stockholm Sinfonietta. Nadine Jurdzinski has played with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, and joined the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006. Stefan Lindgren has been the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s pianist since 2007.

Menu: Roasted root vegetable soup, served with grated cheese and toasted seeds.

Konserthuset Play!
Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 is a musical miracle that includes the famous piece Air! Bach and Baroque expert Ton Koopman leads the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, giving this performance extra vigour. Listen

The Stockholm Concert Hall at Hötorget is one of Sweden’s great architectural masterpieces. Created during a period of expansion in Stockholm, by the Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom, it opened in 1926. The Stockholm Concert Hall was built for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and has since the start been the dedicated venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony as well as many other prestigious events.

The tour is in Swedish.

Nina Stemme! Without the slightest hesitation, she is one of Sweden’s strongest shining stars of opera on the global level. She is the recipient of the major, prestigious Birgit Nilsson Prize 2018, which was presented on 11 October at the Royal Swedish Opera in the presence of H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf and H.M. Queen Silvia.

Nina Stemme will appear here together with Swedish Katarina Karnéus (recipient of the Svenska Dagbladet Opera Prize 2018) and German Johannes Martin Kränzle – who are also internationally acclaimed award winners – and we will hear two one-act operas: Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung (with Karnéus) and Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (with Stemme and Kränzle).

Time stops. The protagonists in both pieces are in dreamlike situations, their surroundings charged with symbolic explosive forces. Both Erwartung and Bluebeard’s Castle were composed early in the last century, during a revolutionary turn-of-the-century era for both art and science, in the years leading up to World War I. The exploration of the subconscious takes us down the mind’s mysterious twists and turns; quantum physics theories turn concepts upside down, causing the ground beneath us to quake and leading us to marvel at our own existence. The past is present, and the operas' presentations of human destiny also reflect our time.

The lyrics and music in Bluebeard’s Castle are strongly influenced by contemporary symbolism and the ideas of psychoanalysis, something it shares with Schoenberg’s Erwartung to the utmost degree, an opera with unique inherent drama in a stream of consciousness. These one-act operas are frequently performed together.

The performances are directed and staged by Bengt Gomér, and Konserthuset will be transformed into an opera hall – these will be complete theatrical versions of both operas! Among other things, the choir platform will be transformed into part of the stage for the participants.