SOMEONE IS GOING TO COME
For opera, libretto based on the play by Nobel laureate Jon Fosse
Orchestration
3 voices(STBar), fl, cl, bsn, 2 perc, vla, vcl, cb, tape
Duration
1 hour
First performance /Commissioned by
First performance in Oslo, Ultima, 2000
Commissioned by Opera vest
JON FOSSE
Jon Fosse is an award-winning Norwegian author. Fosse has written novels, poems, children's literature, essays and skit plays, in addition to translating and retelling several classic works. He is one of the most popular living playwrights in the world, and is often referred to as "the new Henrik Ibsen". Even write Fosse in Nynorsk. His play has been translated from Nynorsk into more than 50 languages. In 2023, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative drama and prose that gives voice to the unspeakable", as it is called in the foundation of the jury. (text: snl.no) "Someone Is Going To Come" is
Collaboration...
"Knut Vaage (working in collaboration with Fosse) adapted Fosse's play as the libretto for his own one act opera"
on Fosse is a major figure in the modern literature of Norway. Initially establishing his reputation as a novelist, he has largely worked as a dramatist since the mid-1990s and his work has been extensively performed across Europe and in the USA He has been widely described as the most important Norwegian dramatist since Ibsen. He writes in a very austere fashion, brief speeches often repetitively patterned. Someone is Going to Come (Nokon kjem til å komme) was first performed in 1996. A later Parisian production of the play prompted Le Monde to describe him as "the Beckett of the 21st century". Knut Vaage (working in collaboration with Fosse) adapted Fosse's play as the libretto for his own one act opera, which was premiered in 2000. The text has a distinctive poetry, creating through its highly patterned language a powerful exploration of the tensions inherent in human relationships; it occupies a theatrical idiom which, paradoxically, straddles the boundaries between realism and absurdism. It presents an elemental theatrical situation in simple language. A man and a woman seek – so they say and perhaps so they believe – to be alone together; they have bought a very isolated old house near the sea; we know nothing of them, they are called simply 'He' and 'She'. The tensions in their relationship are hinted at; another character ('The Man') appears briefly. The house, which was formerly occupied by the grandmother of 'The Man', is gradually revealed to contain disturbing reminders of its previous occupants – from photos on the walls to an unmade bed, right down to an unemptied chamber pot. 'The Man' makes a pass at 'She'. The cracks between 'He' and 'She' widen.
Vaage's setting employs an eight-piece ensemble: viola, flute, clarinet, bassoon, double bass, cello and two percussionists. The instrumental resources are well used; the instrumental intimacy aptly but powerfully evokes the jealousies and fears of 'He' and 'She', the laughing, disturbed menace of 'The Man'. Perhaps, though, one might have hoped for a little more by way of musical evocation of the surrounding emptiness.
All three singers give intense, compelling performances, sustaining the tension throughout. Siri Torjesen, well known for her work in contemporary repertoire, and Ketil Hugaas, experienced operatic performer, work particularly well together and are utterly convincing in their presentation of the central relationship. They disturb and move the listener in equal measure. Although Nils Harald Sødal has a less prominent role, he handles it very persuasively, not least in his long set-piece towards the end of the opera, which is a minor masterpiece of menace and dramatic pacing.
Someone is Going to Come moves to a memorable conclusion, musically speaking, which I wouldn't want to give away any more than I'd want to reveal the ending of a detective story
(From the CD booklet. Text by Michael McCarthy. Vocal score: musikkforlagene)
World premiere in 2000 at the Ultima Festival
Press
(…) The libretto, based on a play by Jon Fosse, recalls the gloomy melancholy of early Bergman films. The Norwegian composer Knut Vaage has created a dramatic and threatening music on the threshold of atonality, which constantly returns to fragments of songs. Just as the first part of the evening is minimalistic, quiet and somnambulistically floating, the second part entitled "A moon of boiling milk" is staged as a braying comic and screamingly colorful, like an oblique spectacle. In this chamber opera from Luxembourg, an event manager wants to open a nightclub in an old dairy building. During the negotiations with the heir, both are attacked by a murderer (...) (freely translated into Norwegian)
The music is rather descriptive and programmatically linked to late Romanticism. The natural beauty and the waves are heard as opening music so clearly that there would actually be no need for projections of forest and waves on the semi-circular wall during these musical passages, so concrete and suggestive does the ensemble sound. The deep wind instruments dominate the coloring. Small melodic formulas dominate the song accompaniment. The music flows coherently, but also follows exciting psychological developments on stage; the song is melodious and seems to float high. (freely translated into Norwegian)
"In Kaiserslautern, two contemporary one-act plays made their German premieres, showcasing the intense and mysterious musicality of Knut Vaage and the lively absurdity of Camille Kerger. The performances, marked by a masterful chamber ensemble and dynamic direction, captivated the audience with their distinct auras, offering an engaging experience in modern music theatre." (freely translated from German)
"At first glance, these two one-act operas may seem unrelated, yet their exploration of universal themes—love, jealousy, miscommunication, and the past—creates an intriguing blend. 'Someone Is Going To Come' by Knut Vaage and 'Ein Mond aus kochender Milch' by Camille Kerger, performed at Théâtre National du Luxembourg, offer a unique juxtaposition. Despite their differences, directors Frank Hoffmann and Urs Häberli aptly titled their collaborative project 'Shadows of the Past.'" (freely translated from German)
"Friday saw the start of the Ultima Festival. The most anticipated was Knut Vaage's opera "Someone Is Going To Come" to text by Jon Fosse."
"More like that please! Someone will come is in many ways a Spartan opera. Three singers on a very simple stage, a compact libretto, no big facts. But the music carries the drama, and makes it rich."
"Projects are bold - but the result, which premiered in Oslo on Friday, is in many ways a success. Vaage has written music that is not tempted to imitate Fosse's distinctive, repetitive style, but which nevertheless matches the text - with its own means."
"Bull's eye for Fosses and Vaage's Opera. Knut Vaage convinces in his debut as an opera composer, he clarifies and stylizes Jon Fosse's text and gives the singers something to sharpen their wits about."
"This musically inventive and dramatically tense work was well received and deserves a wider hearing."
"Vaage's treatment of Jon Fosse's play about a young couple that moves into a house haunted by spirits of its former inhabitants has theatrical pulse and achieves probing instrumental effects despite an orchestra of only eight players. There's room for more grateful vocal writing, but "Someone Is Going To Come" revealed a promising dramatic talent."
Buy score
Order the piano excerpt for "Someone Is Going to Come" on Norsk Musikforlag's website.
For the score and parts, contact Skjalg Reithaug by e-mail: skjalg.reithaug@musikkforlagene.no.
