Expressen 100416<\/p>\n
By: GUNILLA BRODREJ<\/p>\n
Kristina looks and sounds like a National Opera. Gunilla Brodrej looks at Bj\u00f6rn & Benny\u00b4s musical at Royal Albert Hall in London with tears in her eyes.<\/strong><\/p>\n There is no more remarkable scenery than this. Kersti Vitali\u2019s modest costumes, Helen Sj\u00f6holm 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\u2019s conservative auspices in some black and white image projections (the stony Sm\u00e5land travel, the black sea, Kichisagas birches). And Linus Fellbom\u00b4s 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\u00b4t \u201cKristina from Duvemala\u201d shown in Sweden? Now it has been fifteen years since the premiere in Malm\u00f6. Carl Bildt, sticking up among the other Swedish blondes in the audience at the Royal Albert Hall. I run into him in the foyer. The audience stands up and cries out for Kevin Odekirk\u2019s super expressivr \u201cGold Can Turn To Sand” and when Helen Sj\u00f6holm burst out of the arrest, “You Have To Be There\u201d 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\u2019s 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. 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\u2019ies 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. \u201cKristina from Duvem\u00e5la\u201d is a resounding example of the mix between high and low.<\/p>\n 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. Back<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Expressen 100416 By: GUNILLA BRODREJ Kristina looks and sounds like a National Opera. Gunilla Brodrej looks at Bj\u00f6rn & Benny\u00b4s musical at Royal Albert Hall Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1747,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1810","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1810\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I say Hello and introduce myself.
\n– Yeah?
\n– This is our National Opera!?
\n– It is the first time I hear it, but it is very good.
\n– Do you not agree that this is our national opera? We don\u2019t have one.
\n– Uh, yes. (Now Corazza appears)
\n– Good to have you here!
\nIf 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.
\n– 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.<\/p>\n
\n– 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.<\/p>\n
\nWhy not play it in Sweden?
\nAt first Andersson doesn\u2019t 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?
\n\u201cKristina from Duvemala\u201d 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 Bj\u00f6rn, and perhaps above all, Benny’s new band. Therefore Benny responds that they do not have the time, when I ask why \u201cKristina\u201d has not been staged in over ten years. It\u2019s because he can\u2019t hand it over to anyone else. Must we wait until you pass away?
\nYes.
\nHm.<\/p>\n