Tokfursten a modern gem of an opera

Work
CD King of Fools - Tokfursten (1999)
Publication
Uppsala Nya Tidning
Journalist
Ulf Gustavsson
Published

“To this story Carl Unander-Scharin has written remarkably luminous music which lies close to the words, voices, and spoken dialogue and which simultaneously succeeds in conveying something of the isolation and denial of life which are part of the existence of the young psychotic patient. The music’s scale constructions move outside the usual keys – often in the form of an insistently illustrative course of events with elements of the burlesque, but also with icily barren passages which bring out the main character’s vulnerability (to my ears, some of these are reminiscent of Frank Zappa’s seriously underrated orchestral music). In CD format the work becomes a listener experience with contrasts, a presentation of an experiential world in fragments and chaos, dissonant and desolate, as when a solitary violin entwines itself around Mats Persson’s voice in the opening of Act II, melodiously captivating, as in the suggestive Hibernal chorus, and not least with a benevolently humorous tone which has been preserved from the novel.”