It’s an “electro-opera” composed by The Knife, commissioned by a Danish performance group (Hotel Pro Forma) and based on Darwin’s Origin of Species. The result is probably about as weird as evolution sounded to the creationists at the Scopes Trial (and the whole fuss was started to get some publicity for the small town of Dayton, TN, according to Wikipedia).
The entire opera is available, streaming, on NPR until February 2nd.
From NPR:
“It’s one thing to write an opera about Darwin; it’s another entirely to use his theories as a basis of composition. Olaf Dreijer spent time in the Amazon jungle, researching and recording animals and objects. He learned from their timbres, infusing not only the field recordings into the piece (see “Letter to Henslow”), but also mimicking them with synths…”
“… The disparate characters — the synth-pop duo, the Berlin-based avant-electronic artist, the opera singer, the actor, the pop singer, the percussionist — finally coalesce into one sentient, rhythmic being. This is an organic future, built up from The Knife’s keen sense of songcraft and burned with Wahlin’s operatic voice as it intertwines with Karin Dreijer-Andersson like Meredith Monk twiddling a pair of glow sticks.”
Listen & read on: NPR - The Knife’s ‘Tomorrow, In a Year’
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