Wednesday 22 May 2019

Photo: Stephen Gill / from the series and book: The Pillar / 2015 – 2019

Waiting

by Calixto Bieito & Karl Ove Knausgård

Wednesday 22 May at 18.45 – Buy a ticket
Thursday 23 May at 19.30 – Buy a ticket

​Peer Gynt , as Solveig sees it.

​How is Norway's national epic seen through Solveig's eyes? What can she who is waiting tell?

This year's festival opens with the premiere of a symphonic passion story set to music by Edvard Grieg. Novelist Karl Ove Knausgård has created a modern Solveig in poetic short story form, which forms the backdrop for the performance. The direction is by Catalan Calixto Bieito , who has previously turned the Ibsen plays Peer Gynt and Brand upside down during the Bergen Festival.

- The theme of Venter is human loneliness; a loneliness no one can break free from, and the small details and stories that make up our existence, says the director.

The role of Solveig is filled by the Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen , who brings with her the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and 16 singers from the Edvard Grieg Choir under the direction of conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen . Sarah Derendinger , who, among other things, has worked on the Olympic opening in London, is in charge of video design. And Peer? He may appear, in an uncredited role.

Venter is an international co-production, and will go on to a number of cities in the Nordics and Europe.

"A few field crows came flying in above me. More followed, and soon the air was black with birds. It was like a carpet of flesh, I thought, with beautiful, changing patterns in black and blue, which the next moment dissolved (…)"
- KARL OVE KNAUSGÅRD

Contributor
​Calixto Bieito direction, idea, concept
Karl Ove Knausgård libretto
Sarah Derendinger video design
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Edvard Grieg Choir
Eivind Gullberg Jensen conductor
Mari Eriksmoen soprano
Alexander Nohr baritone