Two young women, Brigitte and Paula, dream of a better life and are dependent on men to climb the social ladder. They are the main characters in Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek's breakthrough novel "The Loved Ones" from 1975, which Jenny Wilson has rewritten as an opera.
The novel – just like Norrlandsoperan – celebrates 50 years, and Jenny Wilson thinks its criticism of patriarchy and capitalism is highly topical.
The patriarchal society is trending now, damn it. So the relevance of it, and the necessity of it, unfortunately, only becomes more and more topical, the more crazy men take over the world and create fascist chaos, she says.
Icy Rage
The novel depicts how we all struggle to break free from our predetermined paths in society's framework. Brigitte submits to marriage, despite being disgusted by her husband. Paula dreams of love but ends up in a violently destructive relationship.
We are women of our time in Sweden, so we experience ourselves as free with free choices. But if you zoom out, it's still like this, says Jenny Wilson about the plot, which she thinks is characterized by "icy rage".
But Elfriede Jelinek also depicts the absurdity of people's situations with a dark humor that Jenny Wilson appreciates. The Nobel laureate's language gave her inspiration for the music. She hasn't listened to traditional opera and didn't follow any conventions.
I heard a kind of music in the language, a minimalist music with a lot of repetitions. So I've indulged and experimented with expressions that don't fit within so-called pop music, she says.
Magic Fantasy
At the same time, Jenny Wilson is now current with the newly released EP "Fantasy finally forever", about young people in exclusion. She has called it "the album of stay-at-homes and truants" – it's about dealing with the feeling of not fitting in.
She herself has "dropped out of all schools she ever attended", except for elementary school, says Jenny Wilson. She emphasizes that the album doesn't just touch on the anxiety of locking oneself in, but also the relief it brings to escape into fantasy.
I wanted to write about the wonderful magical state where you're unreachable and play games, listen to music, or whatever you do. I recognize myself in that when the outer world is too tough, there's the wonderful fantasy world – for me, in music.
The opera premieres on March 8, in connection with Norrlandsoperan's 50th anniversary.
The music is performed by Norrlandsoperan's symphony orchestra and eight solo singers, under the musical direction of Norrlandsoperan's new chief conductor, Eduardo Strausser. The director is the London-based theater and opera director Franciska Éry.
The opera's final performance on March 29 will be broadcast live to cinemas across Sweden, via Folkets hus och Parker.
