Lørdagsopera: Revolution and Rebellion

Address

Christiania Torv 1,
0157 Oslo

Lørdagsopera: Revolution and Rebellion

Description

Welcome to Lørdagsopera at Gamle Raadhus Scene. We promise high quality and good spirits, high notes, sorrow and drama in the best operatic style. The singers present what they sing themselves. There will be well-known and beloved arias and duets, and sometimes there will be a theme running through the performance or an excerpt from an opera. Doors open at 14.30. We recommend a visit to Skyggesiden bar before or after the performance. You can come and reserve a seat with us when the doors open at 14.30, go back down to the bar and come up again at 15.00. Unfortunately, it is not permitted to bring drinks from Skyggesiden bar up to us. Today's programme Today the audience will experience excerpts from the operas Andrea Chénier (Umberto Giordano) and Francesca da Rimini (Riccardo Zandonai) - the most explosive love dramas of verismo, with stories of revolution, power struggles and forbidden love. Read more about both operas at the very bottom of the page. Performers Ivi Karnezi, soprano Stian Økland, tenor Patrick Egersborg, baritone Stefan Ibsen Zlatanos, piano The concert series is supported by Kulturdirektoratet. Tickets To secure a ticket, we recommend buying one through TicketCo. If it is sold out on TicketCo, you can get in touch by text message on the same day, as we occasionally receive cancellations. Send a text message to 95 23 24 01. About 50 seats are already reserved by our Gold Members, who come every Saturday. Read more about Gold Membership at the bottom of the page. Address Gamle Raadhus Scene, Christiania torv 1 The orange house on your right when you stand with your back to the statue of HANSKEN on Christiania torv and look down Rådhusgaten towards Operaen. Right next to Rådhusgata 30. Our door is red and has brass handles. A little history The story of Lørdagsopera began as early as 2002, when Kulturentusiastene started an opera pub at Dockside on Aker Brygge. The concept quickly became popular and developed through concerts on several stages in Oslo. By the autumn of 2008, Kulturentusiastene had already begun a collaboration with Kristiania Bar & Kafé in Østbanehallen, where Operanachspiel was established as a regular Saturday offering. Audiences flocked to it, but it gradually proved challenging to combine the concerts with a busy venue. On 7 January 2009 Opera til folket was founded as a continuation of Kulturentusiastene, with the clear aim of making opera accessible to a broad audience. In the spring of 2010 the concept was therefore developed further into a dedicated Saturday initiative under Opera til folket. The ambition was to create a regular meeting place where audiences could experience professional opera singers up close in an informal and inclusive atmosphere. When the series moved to Pigalle at Grønland in the autumn of 2013, it was given the name Lørdagsopera. That same autumn Opera til folket took over the running of Gamle Raadhus Scene, which is rented from Kulturetaten in Oslo kommune. On 6 February 2014 the first Lørdagsopera concert was held on the stage, where the series is still based. Today Lørdagsopera is the flagship of Opera til folket and one of Norway's longest-running regular opera series. Every spring and autumn the audience is invited to weekly concerts from February to April and from September to November. PublikUng PublikUng is an organisation that lowers the threshold for young people to attend opera and classical music concerts. The vision is to spread interest in these art forms and make them more accessible to those between 18 and 30. PublikUng now has just under 2000 members, and it costs only kr 50,- to become a member. The only rule is that if you have received a free or very cheap ticket to a concert/performance, the registration is binding. You MUST then use your ticket. If you do not, there is unfortunately a fine. There is always a long waiting list and someone else who wants to go in your place, if you cannot. Please let us know, therefore, if you will not be using your ticket after all. You can also give it to a friend. Sign up via publikung.no Become a member of Opera til folket Membership has a one-off price of kr 250,- and gives you, among other things, discounted tickets for most tickets at Gamle Raadhus Scene! When you sign up you will be sent an e-mail with payment information. Go to the front page of Opera til folket and sign up. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Gold Member Opera til folket's Gold Members come to Lørdagsopera every Saturday. They have a permanent seat with their name on it and have become part of our opera family. If you buy a season ticket, you save a good deal of money. If you cannot come on a Saturday, you can send a friend in your place so that the seat does not stand empty. If you are interested in buying Gold Membership, and thereby a season ticket, send us an email at gs@operatilfolket.no and we will help you. Instructions for ordering tickets Once you have arrived at the TicketCo page, first choose the number of tickets, then press the yellow button that says «ORDER». Then press «CONTINUE». You now come to a very simple registration (register only one name for all the tickets, and you will save a lot of time). Finally you come to a payment page, where you need Bank-ID to pay. If for some reason you are unable to order tickets via TicketCo, you can send an e-mail to: info@operatilfolket.no About the operas Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano (World premiere 1896) Andrea Chénier is an intense love drama set in the most violent phase of the French Revolution - a period when political ideals, power and revenge dissolve established structures and personal relationships. The opera follows the poet Andrea Chénier, who, despite his aristocratic background, distances himself from social injustice. He falls in love with Maddalena di Coigny, a young noblewoman whose world soon collapses as the revolution advances. At the same time Carlo Gérard - formerly a servant in her family and now a revolutionary leader - carries both political ambitions and personal desire. When the balance of power is reversed, Gérard uses his position to have Chénier arrested and condemned. Maddalena appeals to his conscience. Faced with the consequences of his own actions, Gérard is confronted with the moral decay of the revolution and his own disillusionment. The question becomes whether the realisation comes too late. Andrea Chénier is known for its expressive and dramatic musical language within the verismo tradition. Although the opera is rarely staged in its entirety today, and was last staged in Norway at Den Norske Opera & Ballett in 1999, several of the arias and scenes from the opera are loved by opera audiences. This concert will include «Un dì all'azzurro spazio», «Nemico della patria», «La mamma morta» and the final duet «Vicino a te». Francesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai (World premiere 1914) Francesca da Rimini is a medieval drama rooted in the North Italian power struggles between two rival princely houses. Francesca, daughter of the Polenta family, enters into a political marriage with Gianciotto Malatesta. To secure the alliance, the family lets her believe that she is to marry his younger and more attractive brother Paolo. Francesca and Paolo fall in love before the deception is revealed, and the feelings do not cease after she realises that she is married to Gianciotto Paolo tries to distance himself, but the two eventually begin a secret affair. Gianciotto's younger brother, Malatestino, who himself desires Francesca, exposes the affair, motivated by jealousy and a thirst for revenge. In a violent reckoning Gianciotto kills both Francesca and Paolo. Zandonai's score sits in a field of tension between late Italian verismo and a more refined, orchestrally oriented operatic style. In contrast to the more direct drama of composers such as Pietro Mascagni and Umberto Giordano, Zandonai works with greater symphonic continuity, detailed orchestral colour and harmonic complexity. In Francesca da Rimini this materialises in a dark, erotic sound world where desire, violence and fatalism are built up over long musical arcs of tension. In the concert we will see excerpts from the scenes of Francesca and Paolo, in this opera that has never been performed in Norway.