Five-hour opera closes Narva Opera Days

ERR reports that the 10th Narva Opera Days will end at the Kreenholm factory with a five-hour production of the contemporary opera Einstein on the Beach. The audience will be allowed to move around the factory and explore it while listening to the opera.

Einstein on the Beach, also known as Einstein rannas, was first performed 50 years ago and became the most popular contemporary opera of the last century. Its radical structure deliberately rejects traditional operatic conventions and combines them with the minimalist music of American composer Philip Glass, in which a single motif can last nearly half an hour.

“At some point, the repetitive music starts working in such a way that you get a physical experience from it. It is like looking at one point. You begin to perceive your surroundings differently. It is a journey and, in a sense, meditation,” conductor Jaan Ots said.

Organisers have taken the five-hour length into account and will let people move freely during the performance.

“Within the first half hour, people already feel that this is not an ordinary concert. We did not come here to sit; we came here to look around. You can look anywhere and listen to everything. In a sense, it is an experimental form,” Ots said.

The Narva Opera Days have been held for 10 years, with organisers choosing a distinctive feature each time to surprise audiences and suit the Kreenholm factories.

“Kreenholm and this opera fit together very well, like twins or a single work,” said Julia Savitskaya, organiser of the Narva Opera Days. “Fortunately, I am a little egoistic. I choose what I like most, and history shows that if I like it, the audience likes it too. I do not know why. It is egoistic, but somehow it works.”

Einstein on the Beach is expected to end at 10 p.m. on Saturday, although the organisers said this is not certain. They also hope to present the production in Tallinn later this year.