MEDIATHEK

The opera UR_ is FAR NORTH´s first major music theatre production, developed in sessions in Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Germany. The seed for this work was planted during the first FAR NORTH session in Oqaatsut in 2013. UR_ is the first major project to be carried out by members of the Far North Network and Production Platform.
 
 UR_ — In Pursuit of the Future in Origins In the beginning was not the word, but darkness, and light brought death and deliverance. At least that’s what Greenland’s mythology has us believe. Two main narratives of metaphorical personae run in opposite directions through Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s opera: one follows the path of mans struggle to find a way back to the Ur_ (starting point), the other traces the development of how we humans have become so far removed from our “original state“. The composer spins an ambivalent grand narrative in sound, drawing on the thematic of an evolutionary genesis in seven parts.
 Thorvaldsdóttir’s music for UR_ is born out of humanity’s desperate quest for identity and self-assurance, of asking for a perspective on the future. Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson takes the metaphor of relentlessly searching mankind quite literally. He lets the sensual-abstract imagery of the music and narrative guide the performers toward an organic flowing symbiosis of the senses . He furthermore uses the occasion of a new opera première to pose questions not just about man’s true identity, but also that of the opera genre itself.