This is a performance filled with pranks and nonsense, completely in line with the two almost anarchistic books. It is as if the two (C-)Karls have really found each other. What one of them has written in the music, the other has reinforced and played with, and this means that the distance between the stage, orchestra pit and concert hall is dissolved many, many times.

The audience at the premiere seems to have been well read, and the pleasure of recognition spread and was contagious. The most clear-spoken performers had also been chosen, in the knowledge that the first complaint of an audience that includes lots of children is that one can’t make out the words.

Carl Unander-Scharin’s children’s opera “Loranga, Masarin och Dartanjang”, based on Barbro Lindgren’s books, is a successful combination of absurd 1970s theatre, a musical, and a traditional opera, in which the boundaries have been erased and adapted to an audience of children.

(…) To be on the safe side I had brought with me an expert commentator, Henrik, age 8. However, his comments were extremely brief. Everything was good. Nothing was boring.

(…) The performance works best when the Royal Swedish Opera takes a break from itself and plays at presenting an interactive happening with the audience. Then Ketil Hugaas’ splendid Dartanjang emerges as the audience favourite, with his genuine lack of a fixed identity.

Det är en föreställning full med spratt och tokerier, helt i enlighet med de två närmast anarkistiska böckerna. Det tycks som om de två karlarna verkligen har funnit varandra. Det som den ene skrivit in i musiken har den andre förstärkt och busat till, och det betyder att avståndet mellan scen, orkesterdike och salong många, många gånger upphävs.

Carl Unander-Scharins barnopera Loranga, Masarin och Datanjang, efter Barbro Lindgrens böcker, har blivit en lyckad blandning av absurd sjuttiotalsteater, musikal och finopera, där gränserna suddats ut och anpassats till barnpubliken.