Newsletter, October 2014

Charlotta Larsson – now at NorrlandsOperan in the part of hysteria-struck patient Blanche Wittman

Charlotta Larsson, one of Scandinavia’s most prominent lírico-spinto sopranos, is now in the limelight for the title role Blanche in Mats Larsson Gothe’s newly written opera Blanche & Marie that will premiere in Umeå on 10 October.

Blanche & Marie is based on a novel by North Swedish author P O Enquist, intertwining the lives of the first woman Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie and of mental patient Blanche Wittman, shown to the public by the famous neurologist J M Charcot. After Charcot’s death, Blanche was declared fit and was hired by Marie Curie as laboratory assistant.

Marie is socially outcast and scandalized because of an illicit love affair; Blanche was ardently desired by her former doctor. Their experience of complicated love and their mutual fascination for the mysterious, fluorescent radium bind them together.

Question: A sad feeling of sisterhood develops between the two women who have suffered for love and for all-consuming work. When working with the character of Blanche Wittman, what method have you used?

Answer: I did not want to read the book in advance. My starting-point is always the music and the other singers. I make a profile of the character and follow my intuition, I always work like that. The music in this opera is of wonderful beauty!

Q: The search for the mysterious radiation is placed on a level with issues of human love. Can you tell us about any particular scene in the opera?

A: The plot is not chronological. Due to the highly dangerous radiation, several parts of Blanche’s body had to be amputated. Mutilated she lies in her wagon-like box but she does not give up. As long as there is desire in life, there is also love. But neither love nor radiation can be explained. While working with this opera, all of us in the team have been transformed, changed our attitudes and grown as human beings. It is a funny coincidence that at the present time I am playing another “mutilated” role: On 14 November, Roy Anderssons’s film “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence” has its premiere. I play the role of Halta Lotta at Halta Lotta’s tavern in Gotheburg.

Q: What are your dreams for the future?

A: The parts of Salome and Tosca, the Wagner parts Isolde and Elsa, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, just to mention a few …

During her career, Charlotta has sung on all leading Scandinavian stages; the Royal Opera, GöteborgsOperan, Malmö Opera, the Kongelige Teater and the Norske Opera. In 2012 she had a huge success in Frankfurt with the title role in Barber’s Vanessa. Last spring she sang the Marschallin in the Knight of the Rose (Der Rosenkavalier) at Malmö Opera and last summer she was a very much acclaimed Desdemona in Opera på Skäret’s Otello.

For further information about Blanche & Marie, visit www.norrlandsoperan.se. Director is Elisabet Ljungar, Susanna Levonen sings the role of Marie Curie and Jakob Högström the role of psychiatrist Joseph Babinski.

Roy Anderssons’s film “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence” recently won the Gold Lion Award at 71^st Venice International Film Festival.

Photo: Peter Knutson

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Yet another new opera gets its premiere in the north of Sweden in October. Mats Rondin will lead Piteå Kammaropera in Hjärtats nycklar (Keys to the Heart), composed by Peter Bruun. Performances are given in co-operation with Umeå European Capital of Culture Year. Tenor soloist is Johan Christensson and director Patrik Sörling. Opening performance at Umeå City Church on October 4 is followed by a tour in Norrland until October 11.

Danjulo Ishizaka’s CD, Grieg, Janacek, Kodaly, released last summer on Onyx, was given splendid reviews in the Strad and Gramophone. Among other things the CD contains Edvard Grieg’s Cello Sonata in A minor. Furthermore, the Pavel Haas Quartet’s CD, in which Danjulo takes part in Schubert’s String Quintet, has received the Gramophone Classical Music Award!!!

Maria Fontosh will sing the role of Dona Elvira at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. Performances will be held between October 17 and November 15.

At Malmö Concert Hall, Malmö Symphony Orchestra will perform Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem during All Saints’ weekend on October 30 and 31 with baritone soloist Albert Shagidullin and conductor Marc Soustrot.

Daniel Hällström is Figaro and Ann-Kristin Jones Cherubino in GöteborgsOperan’s production of the Marriage of Figaro. Perfomances are held between October 31 and November 26.

On October 31 Christian Juslin will sing the tenor part in Verdi’s Requiem together with the Tampere Philharmonic.

Cornelia Beskow will sing the part of Aksinya in Shostakovich’s satirical tragedy Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen, between November 2, 2014 and January 25 next year.