Musical Destinations
Rebecca Franks heads to Sweden’s second city where, at the opera house, plans include a uniquely environmental Wagner Ring cycle
Rebecca Franks enjoys the opera in Gothenburg
The wind is bitingly cold, and there’s the steel glint of snow in the air. The ground is icy, and the water is whipped up into waves. Standing on the edge of the docklands, looking out over the Göta älv brings to mind the briny tang of Britten’s Peter Grimes or even the stormy seas of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. An apt location, perhaps, for one of Gothenburg’s most recognisable buildings, the opera house. Its striking design echoes its setting: the entrance like the prow of a boat, the curve of the glass foyer perhaps like the hull of a cruise liner. The design, said the architect Jan Izikowitz, ‘[is] possessed by an airiness that sends your mind soaring across the meandering landscape like wings of seagulls.’
Located on the country’s west coast, Gothenburg is Sweden’s second city. Today it’s the largest port in Scandinavia. The water is part of its identity: the historic centre is infiltrated by waterways, while ferries regularly go to the dozens of islands in the Gothenburg archipelago. And that eye-catching opera house is home to a company that turns 25 next year, and which over its first quarter century has put itself on both the national and international map. This autumn, Gothenburg Opera embarks on one of its most ambitious projects to date, a Wagner
Ring cycle. With one opera each November for the next four years, the tetralogy will end in 2021. That coincides with an important date for the city: the anniversary of its founding, originally as a Dutch trading colony, 400 years before.
There is an unusual twist: the Gothenburg Ring will
be the first cycle to be as ecologically sustainable as possible, from the costumes to the interval snacks. The project is the brainchild of artistic director Stephen Langridge, who hopped over to Sweden from Britain in 2013. He had already been inspired by hearing Opera North’s acclaimed Ring cycle – in fact, Gothenburg’s new Fellini-inspired Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos is a co-production with the British company. His new home sparked his imagination further. ‘When I first came here I went to a gathering of all the political parties, pressure groups and NGOS, and all the sessions I went to turned out to be things to do with sustainability and ecology, which fascinates me anyway,’ says Langridge. ‘I asked myself, how can we artists catch up?’ The opera house prides itself on its sustainable credentials: solar panels on the roof,
100 per cent renewable energy, organic food, no meat on Wednesdays. So far, so Swedish. The country is one of the most environmentally sustainable in the world.
This is the first time, however, that those principles have been applied to what’s on stage. Wagner seemed the perfect vehicle. ‘He is such an idealist and the Ring cycle is such a preposterous idea anyway that it feels right,’ says Langridge, who will be directing the productions; ‘also, because it’s four operas, it’s a little bit longer term.’ Designer Alison Chitty has already been off round local recycling plants to look for costumes, and they have grand plans for the staging. ‘We will have developed the set over the cycle of four so that it won’t be possible to go back to the beginning. The whole thing is genuinely evolving, like life,’ explains Langridge. ‘Once a tree has grown, you don’t still have a sapling.’
Although it’s too early to give away all the production secrets, Langridge is planning that the Gothenburg Ring will leave the city with a tangible legacy. That seems in keeping with the company’s ethos. Free concerts see its foyer packed, even for more recherché repertoire
‘One of the great things we’ve been able to do is make an international choir’
like Telemann trumpet and trombone sonatas and Saariaho songs. Outreach programmes are key. ‘There have been a lot of refugees who have come to Sweden, especially from Syria, but not only,’ he says, ‘One of the great things we’ve been able to do is make an international choir.’
The opera house is also home to a contemporary dance company, puts on musicals, and tours the whole region.
But however you look at it, with annual audiences of around 200,000 in a city of 800,000, Gothenburg Opera makes quite an impact. As the city prepares for Wagner-fever – its recent Tristan und Isolde was a hit – the famous Liseberg theme park is, perhaps coincidentally, opening a new ride: Valkyria will be the longest ‘dive coaster’ in Europe. Word of mouth plays a big part in the company’s success. When Bellini’s Norma was staged in the city for the first time earlier this year, seats were slow to fill. But when news of homegrown star Katerina Karnéus§’s fantastic performance in the title role started to spread, the tickets sold out. She was a worthy sensation – and will take the role of Fricka in Rheingold, alongside Anders Lorentzson as Wotan. ‘This is not a place where the stars are sealed off from the public. That’s not how we work here,’ says Langridge. ‘The singers feel that these are our people.’