Morgonstjärnan (2023)
(The Morning Star (opera))

Based on Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard’s astonishing novel The Morning Star (2020),this new opera with music by Sebastian Fagerlund and librettist Gunilla Hemming commissioned by Finnish National Opera follows the success of their previous opera Autumn Sonata premiered in 2017 to great acclaim. 

The events in the opera take place during two days in the city of Bergen. The hot, calm days of August carry a familiar threat, a sense of nature turning against us. A giant star rises to the sky and anticipates change. The star causes strange, mystical behavior in nature and animals, people have visions, the line between life and death, reality and unreality begin to blur. Something inexplainable and archaic seems to be waiting beneath the surface of the familiar modern world.

At the beginning of the opera, we get to know six main characters, all of whom are struggling with big existential questions. As the opera progresses, they encounter things they don't understand or know how to explain, and a common inability to find meaning and take responsibility leaves everyone helplessly alone. Although their paths differ greatly from one another, they are interconnected in both smaller and larger ways. Some only briefly meet each other, but on the other hand under the bright light of the Morning Star, they are all united by their personal failures and the same wonder and fear of the unknown. However, in the end, it is not the protagonist’s personal chaos, but the silent, almost forgotten children of theirs, that bring attention to the fact that change has been among and around them all along.

Somehow I feel there is a big risk that a lot of the Scandinavian feel, nordic noir- mood is lost if the text is translated. Then the city where it happens also becomes a more general place somehow.
Sebastian Fagerlund 

World Premiere production at the Finnish National Opera 2026
Composer: Sebastian Fagerlund
Librettist: Gunilla Hemming
Original author: Karl Ove Knausgård
Language: Swedish
Duration: c. 2 hours, Two Acts
Direction: Thomas de Mallet Burgess
Set Design: Leslie Travers
Sound engineering: Tuomas Norvio
Conductor: Hannu Lintu