Medieval tones and fresh modernism

Work
Byrgitta (2003)
Publication
Norrköpings Tidningar
Journalist
Reidar Sunnerstam
Published

“As a dramatic musical work, opera is strange and interesting. In 1996 Carl Unander-Scharin aroused so much attention with his opera Tokfursten that it was produced again two years later. His Byrgitta opera has qualities which may very well make it equally successful. The composer has succeeded in an unusual way in combining the characteristic melos of the Middle Ages with contemporary musical idiom into a natural organic whole. Elements of original older music merge with the new music, which in recitative and hymn-like passages has an antique-like style. Unander-Scharin’s music has a free-tonal character but that does not mean one cannot sometimes experience a tonal centre. The naturalness of the opera’s song passages is very striking – there is nothing forced or muddled. It is certainly no disadvantage that the composer is a singer.”