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CD-Release!
West Coast Kokkola Opera commissioned a new opera from Sebastian Fagerlund in 2009, which received its World Premiere during Kokkola Opera Summer that same year. During a tour to Sweden this opera was recorded by BIS. Highly acclaimed hybrid CD was released in July 2010. Read some of the reviews: www.klassik-heute.de and www.classical-cd-reviews.com. Döbeln recording was also nominated for the Finnish Emma Prize 2010, classical category.
The main character of the opera is a historic figure, the Swedish General Georg Carl von Döbeln, a hero of the 1808-09 war over Finland between Russia and Sweden. The plot incorporates actual events during the war, but mixes them with fantasies and hallucinations in a many-faceted emotional mosaic As the composer writes in his own liner notes: 'When I began to plan this work, the idea of a grand, epic and heroic war opera felt unnatural to me. I wanted to discover a story - and a way of realizing it - where drama could be combined with humour, without losing track of the serious subject: war and its effects on man.' The libretto by Finnish writer Jusa Peltoniemi is partly in Swedish and partly in Finnish, and includes eleven characters, ranging from a hospital orderly to the King of Sweden. These roles are distributed among five singers, supported by fifteen instrumentalists: piano, string quintet, seven wind-players and percussionists. With these limited forces, Fagerlund conjures up a sound-scape which is rich in colour, variation and emotional intensity. The direction is in the highly competent hands of Sakari Oramo, conducting a cast of leading Finnish singers from the West Coast Kokkola Opera. The comprehensive booklet includes the full Swedish/Finnish libretto with a parallel English translation, as well as a presentation of the composer and his work in four languages: English, Finnish, German and French. Packaged in a cardboard slipcase, this title also includes a full colour leaflet with photographs from the first performance, which took place in 2009.
CD is available on hybrid
disc from BIS via iTunes, Naxos library and selected stores. More
information,
www.bis.se
BIS-SACD-1780 Total Time: 59'00 – Release: Jul 2010
EAN 7318599917801
WCKO receieved 2009 Kokkola-Award
The Cultural board of the City of Kokkola awarded Kokkola Opera with the 2009 Kokkola Award for developing an opera theatre, successful export of productions and area talent, innovativeness, artistic views, high quality in productions and organisational courage and determination. Thank you
