Commission to be premiered at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden
On November 28, Peter Eötvös’s new opera SLEEPLESS, directed by Kornél Mundruczó and under the musical direction of the composer himself, will premiere at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. SLEEPLESS was commissioned by the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, with a libretto by Mari Mezei, based on "Trilogy" by the Norwegian author Jon Fosse.
Opera Ballad in two acts (2021)
Music by Peter Eötvös
Text by Mari Mezei based on "Trilogy" by Jon Fosse
In English with German and English surtitles
World premiere on 11/28/2021
Further performances: 12/1, 12/3, 12/7, 12/9, and 12/16
"You can do anything out of necessity," he says. “Maybe you're right,” she says. Bjørgvin. It is cold. It's raining. Asle and the heavily pregnant Alida wander around the Norwegian coastal town. The young couple is turned away everywhere. “People like you are not welcome here.” Every pause conceals the drifting into an unreal twilight state. Driven by desperation, they gain access to someone else's house. A series of mysterious encounters in which the past comes to life turns out to be a fateful run against time. SLEEPLESS is a tragic story with bizarre encounters and Bonnie and Clyde motifs, which delves deep into the challenges and abysses of being human.
“I decided very early on to view this story as a ballad," says Peter Eötvös, “because Fosse does not determine in which century the story takes place. It could be set in the past, the present, or the future. For me, the ballad as a genre also means this independent view of time and that creates a different sound. A ballad is basically told. In the musical material of the orchestra you can hear all the time that I'm telling something.”
Peter Eötvös, who is one of the most influential personalities in music of our time and recently received the important BBVA Award for music and opera, has created a fascinating and colorful work of musical theater with SLEEPLESS. He and the librettist Mari Mezei interweave snapshots of the existential search for belonging and the question of the legitimacy of violence as a reaction to social indifference to create a stream of consciousness.
The two main roles Alida and Asle are sung by Victoria Randem and Linard Vrielink, both former members of the International Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Norwegian soprano Victoria Randem has been a member of the ensemble of the Berlin Staatsoper since this season. The Staatskapelle Berlin will play, conducted by Peter Eötvös at the world premiere, and December 1st and 3rd, and by Maxime Pascal at three other performances.
The world premiere will be staged by the award-winning Hungarian film, theater, and opera director Kornél Mundruczó, who is making his house debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. He has been invited to festivals around the world with his work, as well as staging at theaters and opera houses in German-speaking and European countries. He made his English-language film debut in 2020 with the drama PIECES OF A WOMAN.