The Distant Sound

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Ekvipagemestervej 10,
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The Distant Sound

Description

It can be hard to see the wood for the trees. In art as well as in love. This is what the composer Fritz learns the hard way. The artist's all-consuming pursuit of perfection is at the heart of Franz Schreker's lavishly orchestrated opera. Here we meet the young composer Fritz, who desperately tries to recreate "the distant sound" he once heard so clearly. The project becomes an obsession that makes him give up everything - including his beloved Grete - and travel out into the world in search of the sound, which only seems to grow fainter and fainter the further away he gets. For Fritz does not understand that the sound springs from the love of his beloved. And the question is whether he will realise it before it is too late. Schreker wrote both the text and the music for The Distant Sound, and it was an instant success that heralded a new golden age for German-language opera at the start of the 20th century. It remained a fixture of the repertoire for 20 years, but when the Nazis came to power, Schreker's music was branded degenerate and banned, because he was Jewish. Schreker's operas are full of colourful and sensuous music, and they are now, fortunately, on their way back to the world's opera stages. The acclaimed director Christof Loy has staged the production, and the chief conductor of Det Kongelige Kapel Marie Jacquot leads a large team of soloists, with last season's critically praised Apollo in Orest, Thomas Blondelle, in the leading role as Fritz. The Distant Sound is sung in German with Danish and English surtitles. In collaboration with Kungliga Operan, Stockholm Photo: Kungliga Operan/Monika Rittershaus Recommended from age 12