Expressen 100416
By: GUNILLA BRODREJ
Kristina looks and sounds like a National Opera. Gunilla Brodrej looks at Björn & Benny´s musical at Royal Albert Hall in London with tears in her eyes.
There is no more remarkable scenery than this. Kersti Vitali’s modest costumes, Helen Sjöholm dress contrasting with the red; this is primarily the story of her. She is the heart that beats and the blood that pulsates. The others wear white, gray and black in Lars Rudolphsson’s conservative auspices in some black and white image projections (the stony Småland travel, the black sea, Kichisagas birches). And Linus Fellbom´s light that sweeps into Robin Wagner’s stage design at the right temperature. For the first time, the entire musical body appears, the musical dramatic effective story, all the colors. It looks like a National Opera and it sounds like one. The translation is finicky with accents and charging, nothing stands in your way. Belcanto and rawer rock opera. So why isn´t “Kristina from Duvemala” shown in Sweden? Now it has been fifteen years since the premiere in Malmö. Carl Bildt, sticking up among the other Swedish blondes in the audience at the Royal Albert Hall. I run into him in the foyer.
– I say Hello and introduce myself.
– Yeah?
– This is our National Opera!?
– It is the first time I hear it, but it is very good.
– Do you not agree that this is our national opera? We don’t have one.
– Uh, yes. (Now Corazza appears)
– Good to have you here!
If Carl Bildt can see so surprised he does it now. He happened to be in town for another meeting and is now alone on the track among Swedish politicians. I see no other Swedish prominenser when Kristina from Duvemala has its UK premiere in the prestigious Royal Albert Hall. There have been extensive calls. This is supposed to be the usual audience tonight.
– I do not know who is going, who they are. If they think this is as Mamma Mia, they are in for a surprise, says Benny Andersson when I meet him at the hotel in London’s Covent Garden before the show.
The audience stands up and cries out for Kevin Odekirk’s super expressivr “Gold Can Turn To Sand” and when Helen Sjöholm burst out of the arrest, “You Have To Be There” there is even more applause. The show Ulrika/narrator (Louise Pitre, the darker musical version of Monica Z.) is touched and has a runny nose when it’s her turn to perform. This song gives you a crying orgasm every time. I’ve never grinned so much, neither before nor after a show, like that time at Circus”, I say and ask for an explanation.
– It’s Kristina, says Benny. Yes, it probably is Kristina. She is quite feasible to relate to. Her concern, attempts to hold together the family, but also her sexuality. They are equal, she and Karl-Oskar. She wants him. It is not just the opposite. So she risks her life and becomes pregnant again. The music also describes equality. She and Karl-Oskar (phenomenal Russell Watson, moving naturally between operatic tenor voice and coat) turns imperceptibly on the top and bottom line.
In almost all of ABBA’s music, there is an element of sadness, except perhaps “Ring Ring” and “Waterloo,”says Benny. And that was what I meant when I made my pine in the Rock Hall of Fame on the Swedish melancholy you can see in Garbo and Bergman’s films. The melancholy tone is also because of Kristina. His comparison, which in itself was a little joke, and meant as one, Benny does not like high horses, could also be interpreted as Abba and Bergman actually emerging as comparable quantities. That it is no longer strictly separated from cultural expressions. When ABBA came to Moscow in the early 80’ies with Jacob Dahlin as the cicerone, to visit the Bolshoi, they felt as with the Gregorian choir a mutual understanding. That they basically became accepted as other artists who were doing music. “Kristina from Duvemåla” is a resounding example of the mix between high and low.
The musical received a huge response when it was new. It was the first time that all news, News, Information and TV4 News, topped with the same thing. This was a time when news related to culture still had their place in the regular news broadcasts, the Culture of news time.
Why not play it in Sweden?
At first Andersson doesn’t really understand the question. It’s too crowded! 75 people onstage and 50 in the orchestra. But I think the National scene. Royal Opera House or maybe Opera House. Or Malmo, where everything started, adds Benny. Why has it not been played more in Sweden?
“Kristina from Duvemala” has all the ingredients that make it a national opera. It contains the Swedish history, literary and actual, are created by Sweden’s most famous composers and includes music with colors from the opera, musical and Swedish folk music. The big difference is that the composer did not release the grip on his work. But in fact this is Björn, and perhaps above all, Benny’s new band. Therefore Benny responds that they do not have the time, when I ask why “Kristina” has not been staged in over ten years. It’s because he can’t hand it over to anyone else. Must we wait until you pass away?
Yes.
Hm.