LINZ. Michael Obst and Hermann Schneider have teamed up once more and created a new opera. The composer and the director of the Landestheater have adapted Halldór Laxness’s Icelandic novel “Am Gletscher” for “Unter dem Gletscher”, a work commissioned by the Linzer Landestheater. The world premiere will take place on Saturday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Musiktheater.
At the foot of Snæfells Glacier, a parish priest neglects his pastoral duties. This is the rumor that leads a young clergyman from Reykjavík to the Icelandic provinces on behalf of the church authorities. What awaits him there, however, is far more complicated: a pastor who would rather fix camping stoves than preach, an immensely wealthy and influential big businessman and three shepherds who speak of the miracles of revival and seem to need little reality, are just that Beginning of a wondrous and enigmatic story regarding a society between popular belief and modernity.
Long-term cooperation
Composer Michael Obst and Hermann Schneider, who wrote the libretto and who also directs, have taken on this subject. It is Obst’s third opera in Linz, for example in 2016 he celebrated a real hit with the public with “Solaris”. Schneider and he have worked together for many years. The refreshing and simple thing regarding a world premiere for Schneider: there is no ballast, the audience is unbiased.
Spirituality in the 20th Century
The literary basis for “Under the Glacier” – “On the Glacier” penned by Halldór Laxness, the only Icelandic Nobel Prize winner to date – is a novel regarding spirituality in the 20th century. “What is fascinating for me is to observe that in the past half-century there are no longer any answers to the question of the meaning of life,” says Schneider. “The world is becoming more and more mysterious for people, they suffer from a lack of meaning. This condition – the urge to know on the one hand and no answers to it on the other – leads to liberation, but also to a lack of orientation.”
In addition to this philosophical aspect, the opera also poses the question of how the church as an institution is, the question of the discrepancy between lived life and theoretical knowledge. But the piece is also a “mystical mixture of science fiction and mystery thriller,” explains Schneider.
Profound, with a lot of cheerfulness
Like Obst, it’s also important for him to emphasize that this is a profoundly funny world, “with a lot of weird characters,” says Obst. It is a humane and grotesque comedy. Despite all the profundity, a great, subtle cheerfulness hovers over the events in view of the absurdity of human existence in the context of a grandiose nature and an indecipherable spirituality.
Iceland’s rich treasure of music
Musically, Obst was inspired by Iceland’s rich musical treasures when composing. Just as the novel comes across as light-hearted, the music is not difficult either. Obst has fitted melodies from Icelandic folk music into the harmonic concept and varied them, playing with them. “The opera is not through-composed, the music comes in numbers,” says Obst.
The Bruckner Orchestra Linz will play under the direction of Ingmar Beck. He also underlines: “The music is sometimes very entertaining, but also has an opinion and tells how the mood is”. The large orchestra is also staffed with three saxophones, a jazz bass and piano. “It’s music that creates a lot of images in the mind.”
Service
According to Obst, the general idea was to bring the lightness of the novel into words and sounds. The premiere will be on Saturday, May 21, 7.30 p.m. All dates, information and tickets: www.landestheater-linz.at
