Damned saint

Work
Byrgitta (2003)
Publication
Expressen
Journalist
Lars Sjöberg
Published

“The virtuoso twelve-person ensemble – strings, a couple of wind players, guitar, cembalo and percussion instruments – make one think of the Renaissance but nothing more. Act I is the strongest in the opera, with a vocal and tonal sensualism I have not heard from Unander-Scharin before. The duets between Byrgitta and her mirror image (= conscience) are marvellously beautiful. Ulf Gudmarsson’s deathbed scene hits the viewer straight in the gut and the tear ducts, just because it does not display a single old opera cliché.
“The strongest side of Byrgitta is this very belief in not just the illustrative, but the narrative and formative power of music, and a read-through of the text gives the reader not the least premonition about which feelings and motives the composition plans to draw out. Unander-Scharin triumphs in sheer unpredictable points.”