It’s been six weeks since my last post, but that does not mean that I’ve been idle. (In fact, time flies both when you’re having fun and when you’re incredibly busy!) Another time, in another post, it might actually be interesting to discuss why this keeps happening to me, but this particular post is going to be all about one very exciting thing.
If you have been following my blog over the last year or so, you might remember that I was one of three composers selected for the upcoming fifth instalment of the Royal Swedish Opera’s biennial project “Short Stories”. About a year ago, I had some early meetings with the production team at the opera and started brainstorming with my designated librettist, Tora von Platen. But the main part of my job – composing the music – only begun in earnest in May of this year.
Tora sent me a completed libretto on Good Friday (of all days), but we spent most of April discussing the format and length of the opera, as well as rethinking which of the four soloists would sing which role. We ended up switching roles between two singers, and Tora condensed the libretto from six scenes down to four. I was concerned we would not have time to do six scenes justice in a good way, musically, as we had a strict 20 minute time limit.
Sometime in late April, early May, I started composing in earnest, and worked hard for about a month and a half, composing about three quarters of the music. I had already decided I wanted to take a break over the summer from Midsummer, and had hoped to finish the entire opera before then. That way, I could let it sit over the summer, return to it in August with a fresh sense, and have plenty of time to make revisions before the October deadline.
However, a few days before Midsummer, I realised that we wouldn’t have time to do all four scenes. (Six would have been laughably impossible, in hindsight.) Tora and I had some discussions about what to do about the libretto and how to make cuts to the music already written, and then I took a well-deserved – if you ask me – summer break.
I returned to working on the opera in September, after a crescendo of intense work through the better part of August with this year’s Baltic Sea Festival at Berwaldhallen. In fact, I got started again the same week as my last blog post. Basically, I published the last blog post, put on a pair of really big blinders, and got to work.
September ended up an incredibly busy month, also cramming in one radio appearance, two livestreamed concerts, two performances of my own, one new composition for men’s choir (why not, I have nothing better to do), finishing an application for a public grant to commission new music, and some other things as well. A productive month, one might say.
But by September 18th, almost all of the remaining music was finished, and I had made a number of nips, tucks, revisions and cuts to what I had written before summer. In fact, I think these late-stage changes ended up helping the work as a whole, tightening up the narrative in the right places and maintaining the flow and tension. Tora had cut out most of what would have been the fourth and final scene, integrating the most important parts into the third scene. The story itself is unchanged, but the way it ends is completely different. Very exciting!
(If you want to know how it ends – of course you do – tickets go on sale Tuesday October 22nd on the Royal Swedish opera’s website. Get yours before the’re gone!)
I had put up composing an introduction until the last proverbial minute, wanting first to see how much time I would have left for it. Far from a traditional overture, our opera begins with 15-odd seconds of instrumental music before the first sung phrase. In fact, of the 20 minute runtime, probably only two or three minutes are purely instrumental. But again, the brevity of the intro maintains the sense of jumping into the story in medias res, which I wanted to achieve from the beginning.
While the nature of this blog means a lot of talking about myself, I really want to stress that this opera was a collaborative effort. Especially so between me and Tora, of course, whom I had a great time working with and who I believe feels the same. The story was her idea, and the characters, but she has let me be a part of fleshing them and the story out, which I both appreciate and which helped me for when I wrote the music. During the composition period, the libretto has also evolved continuously, with plenty of edits, cuts, and additions, which we have gone through together.
Also, I have gotten invaluable help from friends and acquaintances, whose suggestions, critique, and encouragement have helped make the opera even better. They have helped me straighten out a bunch of questions, solve a couple of problems, and improve sections that I myself felt were a bit underbaked but could not understand why, on my own. Some extended techniques and extreme ranges also were either clarified, rectified, or got the stamp of approval.
The Royal Swedish Opera’s orchestra librarians also deserve a special mention as they have been both a great resource and a delight to work with. Much like other orchestra librarians I have been in contact with so far in my career, they are dedicated to their work, brimming with expertise, and represent the finest meaning of teamwork.
In the coming months and especially next year, as the premiere comes closer, I look forward to working more with the four singers and the conductor, as well. We have had a few interactions so far, including an early playthrough of the opera two weeks ago, and they too have given only enthusiasm and optimism.
Lat week, I submitted the final version of the rehearsal score, after some last-minute changes following that early playthrough the week before. This week, I intend to finish the full score. The player parts are not due until next April, for when the orchestral rehearsals begin, but I plan on doing them sooner anyway to get it all done with so I can move on to other projects.
Yes, there are other projects in the works. This is only the beginning.
Stay tuned.