VOeX Festival:
Sirens
VOeX 2019 opens with a concert with and about women's voices
The subsea sounds of the alien, alluring and potentially dangerous voices have for centuries attracted sailors – like Ulysses in Homer's Odyssey – but also writers and composers. In H. C. Andersen's fairy tale, The Little Mermaid gives away the most valuable asset: her voice. The songs of the sirens have also been interpreted as an expression of the operative voice as such: mesmerizing, hypnotic and acrobatic, but at the same time precious and fragile.
The Norwegian National Opera Chorus open the festival VOeX 2019, which a special focus on 'The Voice', with a concert with and about women's voices. In works by Lili Boulanger, Helmut Krausser, Knut Nystedt, Samuel Barber, Arne Nordheim, Julian Lembke, Charles Stanford and Charlotte Seither, we are taken out on the ocean and below the sea. Ulysses' encounter with the sirens and the fairy tale of The Little Mermaid constitute a background for exploring how the women's voices have been experienced, presented and portrayed, in texts and music.
The actress Gjertrud Jynge will read poems.
Introduction:
Nina Sun Eidsheim (Professor of Musicology, UCLA, and author of the book Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice) will discuss historical representations of women's voices with dramaturge Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby in the Foyer, 30 minutes before the concert starts.
Aftertalk:
With Helmut Krausser (composer), Julian Lembke (composer), Martin Wettges (conductor), Hilde Andersen (dierctor) and Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby (dramaturg)
Foyer. Free and open to all. In English.