MEDIATHEK

All the World, Goodnight is based on the story of Jens Munk (1579-1628), who during the reign of King Christian IV sailed off on long, dangerous and challenging voyages to look for the North West Passage. The music of the opera is by Peter Bruun, and the libretto is by Ursula Andkjær Olsen. Both are associated with the FIGURA Ensemble, which celebrateded their twentieth anniversary in the year of the All the World, Goodnight world premiere.

Peter Bruun, Ursula Andkjær Olsen and the FIGURA Ensemble have collaborated earlier on the opera Miki Alone (2008), which was awarded the Music Prize of the Nordic Council in 2008.

In the opera All the World, Goodnight we follow Jens Munk, the son of a bankrupt father, who travels out at a very young age, first to the New World and then several times to the cold North. He has to look real death in the eyes and loses his whole crew. Week after week on the cold ice, as if hypnotized by the energy of the ice, Jens Munk is drawn time after time into this universe. After repeated unsuccessful attempts he ends up in prison. He has not achieved his goal, but he is not dead either.

The title All the World, Goodnight comes from Jens Munk’s diary. It is the last sentence he wrote in his log when he was in Hudson Bay and thought he was about to die. “Imagine sitting up there on the white, white ice with the feeling that you wanted to conquer the world, but now it is over. And you have not won. There is no glory, no honour; it seems you can only sit there and wait for it to be over. That story hits you as a human being, regardless of time and space,” says Peter Bruun. The opera is the story of a courageous human being who time after time defies all reason, and sets out on a perilous voyage. It happens three times in succession, and it ends badly each time, but he comes through in one piece. That is what makes Jens Munk a hero, but a hero who does not triumph. He is left with a strange feeling of having defied death but at the same time of having failed – and then just with a sense of emptiness. In our own time there are many people who risk life and limb only to win nothing, but we hear nothing about them. The production also features the Faroese vocal ensemble MPIRI. When the production goes on tour abroad, it will be in collaboration with a local choir. The aim is to create communication with the local community that leaves an impression, so that the production is experienced and remembered in a different way.