Who, what where, when?
Opera:
Prima Donna
Rufus Wainwright may have started off his career as an indie musician, but it’s gone in several interesting directions since then, and in the late 2000s he found himself writing his first opera, which was premiered at the 2009 Manchester International Festival. Now, over a decade on, Prima Donna is finally making its Stockholm debut, opening at Kungliga Operan in October. The story is a classic opera knife-edge drama with plenty of glamour in the mix, with an aging star aiming to make a grand return to the stage, fighting her doubts and demons as she does.
Prima Donna, Kungliga Operan, opens Oct 10
Exhibition:
Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti sought with his art to bring modernism into the world of sculpture, at least in the sense that he strove to push the artform forward and firmly into the future and create works that resonated with the times. This exhibition showcases around 100 of his works, as well as revealing his relationships with some of the other major artists and thinkers of his time, including the influence his friendships with writers like Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett had on his artistic worldview.
Giacometti: Face To Face, Moderna Museet, opens Oct 10
Exhibition:
Nordiska Museet
Autumn coincides with some exciting developments for the younger guests at Nordiska Museet. They’re opening two new projects for kids, Tidsvalvet and Mitt Liv. With Tidsvalvet, on-site at the museum, children can via an interactive exhibition explore how their lives might have been had they lived in another time period, though a playful journey through the past 150 years. Mitt Liv on the other hand is a digital project aimed at school classes, where children can send in information about their own lives to be preserved to tell the story of our current age (a similar project took place in 1942). The stories will become part of Nordiska’s collection, a resource for future researchers.
Nordiska Museet, Djurgårdsvägen 6–16
Gig:
Jens Lekman
Even if the outlook still looks bleak for a full return to normality, at least concerts are coming back in some form. Fasching are hosting indie darling Jens Lekman in October, and adjusting to regulations by having two shows on the same day, at 18:30 and 21:00, with the audience restricted to the officially-approved 50-person limit for both. However, if you’re not lucky enough to get a ticket, the 21:00 show is being streamed live on their Facebook page.
Jens Lekman, Fasching, Oct 2
Exhibition: Lyssna
It’s another exhibition about climate change, but this one turns the spotlight onto how we talk and communicate with each other about the subject.
Two films are being shown in the project room, Sophie Vuković’s Untitled Abisko, a love story set in a landscape undergoing dramatic change, and Jens Evaldsson’s 3-D animated film Axis Mundi and the Stomach Without End. Also included are educational works by Peter Lang. Visitors are invited to contribute their own thoughts and discussions about climate change, putting communication back in focus. The exhibition is a collaboration between Konsthallen Färgfabriken, Virserums konsthall and Skellefteå konsthall.
Lyssna, Färgfabriken, on display until Nov 29
Exhibition: Trollbunden
Around the start of the 20th century, traditional stories of nature and the mystical creatures of folk tales started to have a resurgence as an inspiration in the minds of artists. Central to this was John Bauer, whose rich, vivid world of princesses, ogres draped in the shadows of endless forest captured the imagination of the public through his illustrations for the Bland tomtar och troll collection of stories. He’s at the heart of this exhibition, but it also features the work of many other artists who danced with the same themes and subjects.
Trollbunden – John Bauer och den magiska naturen, Prins Eugens Waldermarsudde, on display until Jan 2021
Gig: Klabbes Bank
And another festival finding a way to survive corona is Stockholm Jazz Festival, who are also having limited-audience concerts as a means of making live music happen again. So you’ll have the chance to see the innovative jazz-electro sixpiece Klabbes Bank take over at Kulturhuset in October, along with 125 other programme events across various venues (check their website for the full line-up). At the moment, the ticket release for every show is 50, but there is the possibility for an increased release if conditions improve and the authorities allow bigger groupings.
Klabbes Bank, Hörsalen Kulturhuset, Oct 16. www.stockholmjazz.com