PLANS FOR FUTURE OPERAS
NOIeS! – klangpol concert series
Sun 9 Feb | 7.00 pm | Exhalle (at Pferdemarkt) at the Oldenburg State Theatre
Tickets (14.-/7.- EUR) are available HERE. Free entry for students at the box office!

For more information in English, including a video trailer, press releases and tour details, please visit:
https://oyvindtorvund.com/plans/

The performance forms part of the 22nd Carl von Ossietzky Composition Competition (2024/25), which focuses on ‘musik_szene_theater’, and takes place on the day of the jury’s selection meeting:
Composition competitionuol.de/kompositionswettbewerb

Recent article in the NWZ dated 4 February 25 on the performance and composition competition HERE.

Review in the NWZ dated 11 February 2025 on the performance and composition competition HERE.

The Norwegian composer and author Øyvind Torvund devises plans and fragments of ideas for future operas, all of which defy the laws of physics and acoustics. Soprano Juliet Fraser and pianist Mark Knoop sing and perform the PLANS FOR FUTURE OPERAS whilst being confronted, in a highly entertaining manner, with a wealth of projected drawings.
This acclaimed production from the Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre (world premiere 2022) will be presented as the opening event of the current 2024/2025 composition competition at the University of Oldenburg on the day of the jury’s meeting.

Featuring: Juliet Fraser ( soprano), Mark Knoop ( piano, keyboard, sound design)

The guest performance is an event organised by the Association for Music Theatre Productions within the subject of Music at the University of Oldenburg e.V., in co-operation with the Oldenburg State Theatre as part of klangpol, supported by klangpol – NETZWERK NEUE MUSIK NORDWEST, the Oldenburg University Society (UGO) and the University of Oldenburg.

Øyvind Torvund – composition, text, drawings
Juliet Fraser – soprano
Mark Knoop – piano, keyboard, sound design

Commissioned by the Munich Biennale – Festival for New Music Theatre (world premiere 2022).

Duration: approx. 50–60 minutes

Short biographies:
In the compositions of Øyvind Torvund (*1976) incorporate sounds from rock music and everyday life, as well as improvisations, film music and visualisations. He has enjoyed long-standing co-operations with ensembles such as asamisimasa, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the British Plus-Minus Ensemble and the video artist Yorgos Sapountzis. His works have been performed at events including the Donaueschingen Music Festival, MaerzMusik, the Ultraschall Festival and the Darmstadt Summer Courses. Øyvind Torvund studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music and at the Berlin University of the Arts.

The soprano’s repertoire Juliet Fraser is characterised by early and contemporary music. She works closely with the composers Rebecca Saunders, Bernhard Lang, Michael Finnissy, Matthew Shlomowitz and Cassandra Miller, and performs regularly with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik and Ensemble Modern. She has also launched projects with the percussionist Maxime Echardour and the pianist Mark Knoop.

The pianist and conductor Mark Knoop is known for his daring performances. He has premiered numerous works, including those by Peter Ablinger, Joanna Bailie, Michael Finnissy, Bernhard Lang, Cassandra Miller, Matthew Shlomowitz and Steven Kazuo Takasugi. His virtuosity consistently yields surprising interpretative approaches to the 20th-century repertoire.

Performance details, trailer, press (in English): https://oyvindtorvund.com/plans/

PRESS:

This is much more than a delightful flight of fancy; it touches on the very heart of musical theatre. For Torvund, music – especially when it takes on a theatrical quality – is a phenomenon of communication.
— Egbert Tholl, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 17 May 2022

…a marvellous capriccio, a very modern form of meta-theatre.
— Gianluigi Mattietti, Il Corriere Musicale, 6 June 2022

The magnificent performance by Juliet Fraser (soprano) and Mark Knoop (piano) came as close to a stand-up comedy show as a contemporary music performance ever could. … The excellent vocal performance not only critically examines the future of contemporary opera; it also provides answers. The future of opera lies in artistic collaboration, friendships and ongoing conversations between composer and performer who dare to laugh and dream together.
— Monika Zyła, Glissando, 3 June 2023

A similar playfulness pervaded the Norwegian composer Oyvind Torvund’s imaginative *Plans for Future Operas*, performed by the soprano Juliet Fraser and the pianist Mark Knoop. … the duo conveyed, with gusto and evident amusement, Torvund’s freewheeling musical language.
— Jennifer Gersten, The New York Times, 23 March 2023

The whole piece is constructed with wit, whilst at the same time being very clever and quite complex… A fun performance and a rather brilliant project.
— Jörn Florian Fuchs, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 13 May 2022

Opernwelt 2022: Votes from Jörn Florian Fuchs (DLF, Salzburger Nachrichten) and Klaus Kalchschmid (Die Deutsche Bühne) for the best new production.