Today, the Landestheater Linz presents the world première of Unter dem Gletscher (Under the Glacier), an opera in three parts composed by Michael Obst, with a libretto by Hermann Schneider after the novel Kristnihald undir Jökli by Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness.
It is the composer's fourth opera after Solaris (Munich, December 4, 1996), Caroline (Weimar, July 10, 1999) and Die andere Seite (Würzburg, September 25, 2010).
At the foot of the Snæfell Glacier, a parish priest is neglecting his pastoral duties, so the rumour goes, which leads a young clergyman from Reykjavík to the Icelandic province on behalf of the church authorities. What awaits him there, however, is far more complicated: a priest who would rather repair camping cookers than preach, an immeasurably wealthy and influential big businessman and three shepherds who speak of the miracles of revival and seem to need little reality are only the beginning of a wondrous and enigmatic story about a society between popular belief and modernity. (reproduced from the Landestheater Linz website)
The cast includes mezzo Anna Alàs i Jové (Vebi), bass Dominik Nekel (Tumi Jonson), mezzo Vaida Raginskytė (Mutter Jonson), soprano Tina Josephine Jaeger (Fina Jonson), bass Michael Wagner (Sira Jon), soprano Gotho Griesmeier (Ua), tenor Matthäus Schmidlechner (Helgi) and bass baritone Martin Achrainer (Alfberg). Ingmar Beck conducts the Bruckner Orchester Linz. Hermann Schneider directs.
The performance should last about 3 hours.
