pina

a movie i long to see.

PINA - Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost - International Trailer from neueroadmovies on Vimeo.

an evening at the theatre

on saturday we went to the national theatre to see fanny and alexander, which had its last performance that night. the play was intense and engaging, it had humour and tension, depth and darkness. and wonderful costumes! we sat in the first row, so i was able to see all those detailed pieces of clothing almost in close-up - a great experience.



even though i have seen a lot of ingmar bergman's films, i am ashamed to admit that i still haven't seen fanny and alexander (we had planned to see it on dvd before we would see it at the theatre, but somehow that didn't happen). have you seen any films by ingmar bergman? maybe fanny and alexander? what did you think?



i used the opportunity of a long evening at the theatre to dress up, and chose to wear one of my best vintage dresses. it is a cotton maxidress by the finnish designer brand Kaisu Heikkilä, with a typical 70s flower pattern and fantastic cape-detail at the shoulders, instead of sleeves. i love it!



dress: vintage, kaisu heikkilä
shoes: dna
bag: daisy

frøken else

i've just come back from an evening at the theatre. i saw, and heard, and felt, a monologue, a stream of consciousness.



frøken else, originally a novella by arthur schnitzler, is an innocent young lady of 19 when she is invited to stay at a hotel with her rich aunt. she receives a letter from her mother, telling her that her father is bankrupt and asking her to see with an old friend of the family, who also stays at the hotel, if he couldn't help out with the much needed money. else, who is disgusted by the man, fights with herself if she should do what her family asks her to. the man offers to give the money, but only if she will undress for him and let him look at her for a quarter of an hour. being forced to decide between her family's ruin and her own integrity as a woman, she panics, creates a scandal and then takes her own life.



the way all this is transported by only one person during the course of little more than an hour on an almost empty stage is fascinating. the one dominant thing on the stage is an overdimensional birdcage, which becomes almost something like a dancing partner for else. it encloses her, like her life until that point has been something of a golden cage. it is a prison, and one that she realises she can never escape from, whatever she does, however she reacts. she may escape for a short while, but is always drawn back, and even though it sometimes casts her out it is also a protection from whatever lies outside waiting.



elses story is not only put into words. the play is a monologue gone physical, and it was this physical intensity that struck, that almost shattered me. shyness, anxiety, panic, disgust, every possible feeling was displayed through short, intense movements, like ticks that your mind cannot controll. as if your soul seeks your muscles to express a deeper truth, and cuts off your brain before it starts showing. it was eerie, frightening, and stunningly beautiful. true art.

pictures from detnorsketeatret.no

another opera house

the probably best question i got at work this summer was this: do you have a swimmingpool here? at first i just opened my mouth and shut it again and then asked - what? when confronted with the same question once more i couldn't help but say: this is an opera house - but you're welcome to try out the restrooms...



































however, when we went to helsinki just a few days later, i of course had to take a look at the opera house there, and couldn't help but think: public bath! with all the white glaced tiles and small square windows it really looks like a swimming pool turned inside out.





































some people i met said they didn't like the house, that it was positively ugly. surely it is not as elegant as the opera here in oslo, but i quite liked it, anyways. it has something of an industrial bauhaus feeling, but i also like that it evokes thoughts of greenhouses, these huge ones that were built around 1900 or even earlier, for exhibition of expensive palmtrees and exotic butterflies and birds.

opera

now i'm finally on vacation! when you are reading this, i'll be at my favourite person's family's summerhouse on a small island in sweden, without internet, tv or telephone, but with a huge amount of books, a sauna and hopefully lots of sunshine.

on my last workday at the opera, we took some pictures there in the evening. i wore a new dress (from indiska) and my favourite summer shoes, the swedish hasbeens. later, we went to eat fantastic palestinian food at a really run-down, shabby looking restaurant called habibi.

the coronation of poppea

blood. love. sex. power. violence. death.


















i consider an opera, just as a film or theatre-play, to be really great art when it succeeds in engaging me, my thoughts, my feelings. two out of four operas here in oslo belong to this category, the first one being wagners tannhäuser (review is still to come, it's lurking halfdone somewhere on my laptop..) and the second one being the coronation of poppea by monteverdi, which i went to see about three weeks ago, and again last friday.


















the story is as simple as it is complex. at the core, there is nero, married to a woman he's not interested in anymore and in love (or rather, infatuated) with poppea who in turn is not interested anymore in her husband ottone and fantasizes about marrying nero. obviously, nero wants to get rid of his wife who wants to get rid of poppea, and therefore commands poppeas brokenhearted lover to kill her. things don't go as planned and in the end everybody is dead except nero and poppea who live happily ever after in a sea of blod. or at least until they lose interest in each other, but that's another story.

the nero we meet is a yucky guy, slick and disgusting and still, in all his power, also very intriguing. he is not really interested in politics. not in women per se either. above all, he is interested in his own pleasure. if that includes killing the one or other opponent, that's fine with him. if marriage is the way to keep the woman who gives him most pleasure, well than that's the way to go. love, sex, power, they all get easily mixed up - and what does nero care as long as nero get's what he wants?


















this is definitely not an opera for the faint of heart. it is tragic and beautiful, it breaks your heart and makes you feel sick, it makes you laugh out loud, just to let the laughter get stuck in your throat a minute later.

there was fabulous music, following the sentiments of the characters, adding contrast and humour, as well as widening the spectrum of what baroque music can be and can do by adding some jazz influences. the meldodies were not only well built and played, but the direction of the whole opera interacted extremely well with text and music. a truly amazing experience, tragic, comic, brutal and above all, just as contemporary as it was almost 400 years ago.

pictures from dno&b

ariadne auf naxos

last wednesday we went to the opera, to see "ariadne auf naxos" by richard strauss. it was a mixed experience, since one of the two female leads was amazing while the other one was bland, and at times downright horrible in her performance (i really don't think that looking like you're about to throw up while singing was part of that role. not funny, even though it was supposed to be a comedy). sadly, the latter lady is part of the regular ensemble while the former only had a guest performance...

i wore this lace-dress for the first time:

























the golden cocktailring is from a silversmith in lüneburg who closed a few years ago, the watch i inherited from my grandmother. i feel almost naked without it.

glitter and dance

a week ago, a. and i celebrated. not only had i just finished off my first week at work, we also thought we'd take the opportunity and have something of a belated valentine's day. i was taken out to a lovely and very delicious early dinner, before we went to see a fantastic ballet show at the opera. which i thought was just the right occasion to finally wear the most glittery sequined dress i own:

























(the picture was taken by my favourite person in the world after we came home.)

"Shoot the Moon" consists of four different modern choreographies by some great choreographers, and they are accompanied by enchanting music. the dance was quite abstract, but somehow came around to transfer an extreme amount of feeling and meaning at the same time. the first choreography felt clean, and maybe most abstract. the dancers seemed to build up relations with each other in different constellations which were not fixed but in constant flux, changing abruptly and coming back slightly differently.

















the second one threw you right into the deep mysteries of the world. death. grief. blood. the production felt archaic, and deep with texture. i'm still quite shaken when thinking about it. costumes made of paper. just think. to add sound to your dancing in that way. amazing.



















the third dance was a pas de deux which didn't impress me quite as much, even though technically seen it must have been great (i hope to gain more knowledge about these things during the upcoming months.. i feel kind of stupid, working for the opera and knowing so little about opera and ballet). however, the last choreography (called "Shoot the Moon", thus naming the whole show) made it all up to us. it dealt with couples, relationsships, emotions, everyday life, fights that you have, curiosity for other people's lives, how people express themselves. it felt important. it was different to anything i have ever seen before. i wish everyone could see it. i wish i could see it again.

(pictures from here)

the knife + opera = exciting

i just read that the knife and the danish performance company "hotel pro forma" are producing an electro opera together on occasion of darwins 150th birthday. it is called "tomorrow, in a year. a darwin opera" and will have its world premiere on sep. 2nd in copenhagen. i think this does sound exciting and special, interesting and promising.



if it is anything like the stuff the knife have been doing until now, i sure would like to see it.

sunday day and evening

for yesterday i had planned to sew, mostly. i didn't get as far as i wanted with the dress, but at least i got started and will finish it today and tomorrow i hope. so, for sewing during the day i wore this:

























shorts: h&m
t-shirt: monki
hat and brooch: thrifted
belt: ma mother's old one
shoes: skopunkten

the hat i am wearing is the hat i bought on the fleamarket on saturday. i like it so much! it only cost me 1,50€ and fits perfectly.

























in the evening i went to the thalia theatre in hamburg together with my friend rana. she had given me the ticket as a present for my birthday, and it really was a good choice. at the moment there is no regular program but a kind of theatre festival (autorentheatertage) with many different companies from other cities. the play by rene pollesch was called "fantasma" and to describe it is almost impossible. it was about theatre, philosophy, politics, society, film, but most of all about love. i would also call it total mindfuck. we had a lot of fun seeing it, but it also had depth and i feel like it still has to settle a bit before i can talk more about it.

and of course i dressed up a little:

























little black dress: h&m, altered by me
tights: h&m
shoes: ebay
belt: accessorize
hat: thrifted

Brand

we went to the theatre yesterday, my boyfriend and me, to see "Brand", a play by ibsen. it's the second ibsen-piece i've seen in norwegian now, and the first one set up in rhymes. which made the experience both interesting and exhausting. it was really difficult for me to understand the dialogue, but then the dialogue also felt very beautiful, through the rhyming.

















the play is about this norwegian priest, Brand, who lives after the principle of "all or nothing" and who is sick of the superficial society he lives in. he and his wife kind of flee from society to a small place in the mountains, but he neglects his little son who is dying of cold, and he seems not to be able to give his wife the love and attention she needs after the traumatic death of their son. in the end, he has lost his family and his congregation which leaves him for a more worldly approach to life. realizing his failure, he cannot go on with his life.

















i found the play very intense, even though i had a hard time figuring out what it was about (i hadn't read anything about it before), and i think i would like to see it again in a german version.

after theatre, i was taken out to a lovely dinner at an indian restaurant which we have wanted to try out for almost a year or so. it was soooo delicious!

(the pictures are taken from the national theatre's homepage)

Ur marionetternas liv - Aus dem Leben der Marionetten

theatre again, after all. today i went to see "From the Life of the Marionettes" at the Thalia-Theater in hamburg. hard stuff, i have to admit, but with an ingmar-bergman-film as background, one shouldn't think anything else. hard stuff, but fascinating.

a man, leading a totally normal life on the outside, suddenly kills a prostitute and calls his psychiatrist (who is a friend of his all the same) afterwards. thus the investigation starts, and we find ourselves catched in a web of angst, suppressed desires, strange nightmares and failed relationships. ingmar bergman was psychologic drama, and the stage-adaptation of his film equals his intense pictures on screen.



the stage is a cage, but it's not golden. its blood-red, and the red bars made out of wooden planks remind a lot of the ones they use in sweden for those nice little red houses. it's the middle class this is all about, successful people who can afford all the luxury they like and still cannot find peace, luck, happiness, whatever it is you want to call it. things go wrong. everything looks nice and happy, easy and calm from the outside, but things are brooding under people's skin, and most of the time it's the emptiness that is brooding. until something triggers the angst, the desires, the nightmares...

peter grimes at staatsoper hannover

yesterday, i went on an excursion with around 40 other students from my university to the opera in hannover to see benjamin britten's "peter grimes" in an inscenation of Barrie Kosky. i didn't really know what to expect, even though i had read the wikipedia-article about it earlier in the day. i cannot really say that it will become my favourite opera of all times, but it made some impression, and it gave me a lot to think about.

the piece is, in short, about the fisherman peter grimes and his relationship to the villagers/townspeople of "the burrough", who despise him and make fun of him. the tenor who had his role seemed to be perfect to impersonate this man, he was both ugly and frightening, but still to be pitied in his lonelyness. peter grimes is a man with dreams about a better future for both himself and a teacher, ellen, whom he wants to marry as soon as he has made enough money so they can live well together and without being the subject of people's gossip. all the same, he is a brutal man, beating up his apprentice, never giving him a minute of rest from work and finally causing his death by sending him down the slippery cliff to get the boat ready for fishing.
earlier, he had already caused the death of an other apprentice of his, which was decided by the court to be accidental, but none of the villagers believe this and call him a murder. during the play, they form a mob to lynch him i the end, which doesn't happen because he sails out on the sea to sink himself with his ship (one of his two only friends advised him to do).

at some point during the story he is asked, why he won't move to another place, where people don't know him and won't gossip, to start a new life. his answer is, that he is rooted where he is and therefore cannot go. another answer implied by his actions is, that he hasn't given up on his dream to be able to change the villagers picture of him, a dream which is as impossible as to escape the gossip, which probably would follow him wherever he went (if he moved someplace else). it's a situation in which he can only lose.

both the stage-setting and the lighting, but also the singers' make-up reminded me a lot of roy andersson's movies "songs from the second floor" and "you, the living". the opera also contained some of those movies' hope- and helplessness. it was said that there were more than 500 wooden boxes on the stage, all in all, as background and part of the different locations. those boxes almost had a life of their own, haunting peter grimes together with the villagers, and in the same time being his home.