Mats Larsson Gothe:
Photo: Maria Gothe
”I have no inhibitions”
T
he war is over, but certainly not the suffering. The story of the opera The Promise takes place right after the end of the World War II. In the concentration camp Ava and her husband Teo have been separated, and when the camps are opened, she begins a desparate search for him. In the opera’s propitious prologue set in Hungary in 1943, the young couple gets married – only to be deported shortly thereafter. The opera plunges down into the darkness that follows, to the remaining ruins of our world. Ava makes her way through a severely damaged and traumatised Europe, at times in dreamy and nightmarish scenes. The librettist Susanne Marko has characterised this as “a time outside of time”, when the victims of the war try to recapture their humanity. Ava does not give up her hope to be reunited with Teo, even if her wandering is seemingly hopeless. Larsson Gothe relates that Susanne Marko, born 1947 in Budapest, and for many years active as a dramaturge at the Stockholm City Theatre, gave him a call sometime around 2015. She had an idea for an opera. – At the time I was quite stressed with other commissions and probably did not sound really interested. But Susanne Marko sent me a rough draft of the text. Getting emotionally involved is a good way to begin work on a project; and I was moved. So what was it in the text that convinced Mats Larsson Gothe that he should compose yet another full-length opera? – For the first time I did not need to cut down or trim a text. Of course, we made a number of changes before I started to compose, but everything went off very smoothly. With a concentrated libretto like this I could allow the singing a great deal of scope. – No long-drawn-out recitatives. Here I have been able to build up big lines in the singing parts. This is something I have wanted to do for many years: instead of using Sprechgesang, to let the orchestra merge more with the singing.
Mats Larsson Gothe is now an experienced opera composer and speaks about the importance of going as far as possible when it comes to dramatic clarity. In his fifth opera Löftet (The Promise), to be be premiered at the Royal Swedish Opera on 27 January 2022, he has also written the aria of his life. When you started composing, what music influenced you in just this case? – The opera has an explicit Jewish theme, and I studied Jewish music. Just a few years earlier, in 2010, I had written The Return of Lillith for ensemble and choir to a text by the Lebanese poet Joumana Haddad. At that time I studied Arabian music and Arabic maqam (a kind of scale system or mode). What I now discovered in Jewish music was sometimes identical to it. For example, there is a choral movement at the beginning of the opera with the Chorus of the Survivors that is based on a scale I had previously found in Arabian music. – In Jewish music there is also an element of lament that corresponds quite well to the content of the opera. After a while I got the chanting of the synagogues in my bloodstream. But there are no quotations, except for Mazel tov, which is played at the wedding in the beginning of the opera. Does this mean that Mats Larsson Gothe has disguised himself? – I spoke now only of the background. To be able to paint you have to mix the colours. I blended the colours for The Promise. Then what is ”Mats” or not, I can’t form an opinion about that. But does it lead you in new directions when you do this kind of research? – It gives me a framework within which I can work, and this also has an effect on the homogeneity. In this case, with the Jewish element and the augmented intervals that occur so often in the opera. In The Promise the chorus is also important. Or rather the choruses. – This is really a choral opera.There are two ”chorus roles”: the Chorus of the Dead, and the Chorus of the Survivors. – I have actually viewed this work as a dramatic oratorio, music that will be able to stand on its own two feet and even be performed in a concert version, as are sometimes the classic operas. It would be nice if I managed to create a new kind of opera that is not merely illustra-
tive music. This requires that the music forms a strong structure as an independent composition. In the main section of the narrative Ava is in focus; we follow her searching for Teo. He will return to the plot later on, but he also appears in Ava’s dreams and apparitions in the meantime. How have the dream sequences been solved? – In a musical sense, the transition occurs with a clear breach of style, as in a scene rather early in the opera when Teo disengages from the chorus. In the dreamy state my music is transformed into something like Puccini. This makes it clear that we find ourselves in another world. Larsson Gothe stresses the importance of clarity, excesses and contrasts when he composes an opera. – It’s about pulling out all the stops. All means must be used to the fullest. I have no inhibitions. The big challenge is to do it within the same composition, so that it doesn’t become a collage. Right at the end of The Promise there is a moving and uncluttered aria. – This is when Ava finds Teo and tries to make contact with him, to win him back. He seems to have given up… and she starts to sing. ”Come into my life, my friend.” It was the librettist, Susanne Marko, who convinced me that this aria should be simple, not what I had first imagined. This is the most intimate, beautiful and tender music I have ever written. Do you yourself sing while composing? – I do, but perhaps not always so beautifully. While we worked together, Susanne and I, I sang through the opera many times. After a while her cat started to attack me. A musical cat. Finally we had to lock it up in another room until I was finished. The music is at times so dramatic that it made the cat snap. I hope my audiences will be just as deeply moved. Tony Lundman The Promise will have its world premiere at the Royal Opera in Stockholm on 27 January 2022, the international memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust. Alan Gilbert will conduct and the director will be Stefan Larsson. The leading part will be sung by soprano Hanna Husáhr.
HIGHLIGHTS
3/2021
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