Wreckage of Dreams: A mini opera

I´m having a wonderful time back in Iceland this summer. Meeting friends, fishing, partying and tanning (yes, tanning in Iceland. More than I ever did in England).

But the pen is always close. I wrote a mini-opera to submit to ENO´s mini operas competition (http://www.minioperas.org/). The thing is that I also needed to polish my Mmus composition folio for my viva voce this september, so I only had 2 weeks to write it, 2 day to rehearse, 1 day to record and 1 day to edit it. I´m pretty proud of it. It would not had been possible if I did not have great friends who were willing to help me out with a moments notice.


Go check it out here: http://www.minioperas.org/composer/wreckage-of-dreams-13/

ENO (English National Opera) will choose 10 soundtracks, from 130 entries, to continue to the next round August 6th.

Huuuge thanks to:

Man: Helgi R. Ingvarsson
Woman: Guðrún Matthildur Sigurbergsdóttir

Spoken word: Jenný Lára Arnórsdóttir & Haraldur Ágústsson

Choir: Guðrún Matthildur Sigurbergsdóttir, Jenný Lára Arnórsdóttir, Haraldur Ágústsson & Helgi R. Ingvarsson.

Piano: Matthildur Anna Gísladóttir
Cello: Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir.

Next up:
Small trip to Akureyri, Iceland. And then finishing my Mmus composition folio.

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More information about the opera:

"Wreckage of Dreams" is a mini opera, based on Shaun Gardiner´s script (http://basement-garden.co.uk/). The opening reads:

"The scene, lit only by the moon, is a small boat, adrift on the sea with a dead engine. A large number of refugees lie on the raft: they swamp it, almost concealing the shape of the hull. It is as if a mass of bodies floated on the sea. They have been adrift for fourteen days, and are dying of thirst and starvation"

This music/soundscape is a music/soundscape piece where I try to bring the audience into the world of the sea´s unpredictable currents, where the waves can be both gentle and aggressive, using only a piano, cello and 4 voices along with a few post-production effects. A larger orchestration could easily be created from this reduction. Although I treated Shaun´s script quite freely I was very intrigued by everything he wrote (written late june - july 23rd 2012).