Opera: The Vadstena Academy´s production about St Bridget is a beautifully low-key analysis of the mazes of power, says Magnus Haglund.
“It doesn’t take place in an overly explicit way which strives for effect: this is a work which uses a completely different form of aesthetics, one which is close to that of theatre of the absurd and impressionistically minimalistic music. At times Carl Unander-Scharin’s music is reminiscent of the dryness and objectivity of the orchestral works composed by Erik Satie about 1920, such as Socrate, Relache and Musique d’Ameublement. Few notes, small sounds, melodic fragments which go round, round in a kind of drawn-out slowness which also comprises a beauty as undisguised as it is anti-sentimental.
“It is not strenuously new, but nor is it pastiche-like in that irritating way practised by many young composers today. The key concepts are unobtrusiveness and precision.
“The high point is the austere introduction of Act II, a duet between Kerstin Frödin’s unrestrained recorder playing and the unobtrusive scraping sounds from percussionist Erik Lång – a branch which rustles carefully, scarcely audible water tones. A meditative silence, a heightened attention to the present.”