Krantz // La bohème

Inspirert av Forced Entertainments Shakspeareproduksjoner har Mathieu van Bellen og Mathias Halvorsen bearbeidet Puccinis opera La Bohème til et gigantisk verk for fiolin, klaver og undertekster. I prosessen har operaens to kor, orkester og mange roller blitt fordelt mellom to musikere, mens dialog og handling presenteres som overtekster designet av Ida K. Hatleskog. Prosjektet har fått strålende kritikker på sin ferd rundt om i Europa, og har allerede besøkt steder som Elbfilharmonie (Hamburg) og Beethovenhaus (Bonn).

«Halvorsen and the Dutch violinist Mathieu van Bellen perform the opera La Bohème as a mentally silent film production. The entire score is divided between these two instruments …. Van Bellen sometimes seems to grow a sixth and seventh finger and Halvorsen two more hands, especially in the second act, when they let the Bohemians rejoice in the hustle and bustle of Montmartre, with its intermixing of children’s choir and military band. Off to the right of the musicians, texts and stage directions are projected on a large screen, so that in the minds of the audience Rodolfo’s attic room, the streets of Paris, and Mimi’s deathbed come to life more vividly than on any opera stage. Pucchini’s music, liberated from all its furnishings, reaches right into the unguarded regions of the listener’s vulnerable heart, allowing the audience to indulge with unfettered delight in the play between virtuosity and kitsch.» – Julia Kaiser, Neue Musikzeitung