New Opera bringing opera back to its to its roots

Fri, May 26
3:00pm
donation from $10 sliding scale

New Opera bringing Opera back to its roots !
Workshop performance of 1st. act of Opera "JH : Between Earth and =

Heaven"
Hillside club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley, Friday May 26, 3:00pm,


During the week May 22-26, a group including librettist, composers, =

musicians, vocalists etc. from Scandinavia, Italy and U.S.A. have =

been working on creating a new opera in the spirit of Early Italian =

opera, 200 years ago, when opera was a matter of improvisation, =

experiments with singing, machinery and acting on stage. It is the =

first workshop in a large 4 year opera project, exploring the =

possibilities of opera as a multi medial document, thus being a part =

of an experimental research project by librettist and Visiting =

Professor Niels Windfeld Lund, Norway, at Information School, UC- =

Berkeley. The music for the 1st act is made by Bernt Simen Lund, =

composer and cellist from Norway. In the coming years, more acts will =

be created with music by American, Italian and Chinese composers.

It is an opera about the incredible human, a dreaming human, a =

creative human, he cannot stop when it is proper time to stop, while =

it is still fun to play !
It is about Jens Harpoth, a creative merchant in a Danish town at the =

time of Mozart, the late 18th century. He was dreaming of the good =

life with a lot of love, but he was also a very frugal man, with no =

tendencies to luxury and high society life, quite the opposite, =

almost looking poor in his old clothes.
It is about his ambitious project of making a set of wings and trying =

to fly as a bird, about a man who wanted to explore what is possible =

to do as a human and go to the limits and eventually pushing the =

borders by inventing new technology, a modern human.

JH: Between Earth and Heaven 1st. act
libretto : Niels Windfeld Lund
music : Bernt Simen Lund

Jens, tenor, Rickard S=F6derberg, Malm=F8, Sweden
Anna, mezzo-soprano, Laurie Amat, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Simon, bass-baritone, Wayne Wong, San Francisco, U.S.A.

choir:
Cynthia Weyuker, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Merlin Coleman, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Geoffrey Beach, San Francisco, U.S.A.

orchestra:
Guilio Castagnoli, conductor and keyboard, Turin, Italy
Bernt Simen Lund, cello, Tromso, Norway
=D8ystein Blix, trombone, Tromso, Norway
Gretchen Langheld, clarinets/sax , New York, U.S.A.
Adrian Gormley, clarinets, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Jab, trumpet, San Francisco, U.S.A
Geir Davidsen, euphonium, Tromso, Norway
Gudmund =D8stg=E5rd, processor, Tromso, Norway

Sound design: Jonas Vest, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sound management and recording: Bruce Koball, Berkeley, U.S.A.
Video recording: Nick Reid, Berkeley, U.S.A.
Stage design: Astrid Lynge Ottosen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Venue:

Hillside Club
2286 Cedar St.
Berkeley

Additional Info:

310-956-7750