On May 26th the same label will release the world premiere recordings of her AIŌN and ARCHORA. The latter work had its world premiere last year with Eva Ollikainen conducting the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. She leads the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in this recording. Ollikainen will also be leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the US premiere of ARCHORA in three concerts beginning Thursday, May 11th.

This summer she is co-curator of the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood. She is joined by Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank and Tebogo Monnakgotla as co-curators.

The festival, which takes place July 27th – July 31st will showcase Spectra, Reminiscence I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII, Hrim, Aequilibria, and Ró – all works by Thorvalsdottir on July 28th. The closing program on July 31st will also feature her work METACOSMOS.

Last week I spoke with Thorvalsdottir about her approach to composition, the use of drawings to capture her thoughts before composition and the intense interest in Icelandic composers today. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

You have discussed in previous interviews about creating a state of mind that you described as “caution, but determination.” How much do caution and determination play a part in your composing?

That’s a good question. Caution and determination. In my composition, when I’m finding and searching for the music that I’m writing, I always approach that open and allow for the right ideas to come and to turn into what it is that the music wants to become. For me, openness in the creative process is probably the most important element. And that also more specifically requires head space.

I don’t think about the creative process in other terms fundamentally. Obviously when you’re farther along in the composition process, you’re orchestrating and working with material in meticulous ways. That’s when you have to balance the techniques versus the atmosphere and find the right ways to communicate the things that the music is. 

Other composers often say they’re just a vessel for what comes to them. Do you feel similarly? 

Absolutely. It’s an interesting thing because this is something that is often hard to describe in words because this is not a process that emerges with words or phrases. I think that means that we interpret it like something that comes through us, what comes to us. In that process is so much evaluating and going back and forth between ideas. Each idea will then grow into different ideas and grow branches and roots. So it’s about evaluating many different aspects, every part of the way.

It almost seems foolish to try to discuss what composition is for any individual composer because, like you just said, it’s not a word-driven creative act. 

Right. It’s something that does not come from words, not unless you are writing an opera with the libretto that you’re trying to convey a storyline. It’s an intuitive thing, just like any art. If you think about it, if you’re writing a paper or an article, it might be difficult to describe the thing that you are doing whilst writing. It’s just difficult to describe creative processes, I think.

I do find it interesting that you employ the use of drawings as a source of inspiration; the first pass of an idea is something that’s been drawn as opposed to something that’s been notated. 

These sketches are merely a mnemonic device. The sketches emerge from the music that I am listening to internally. They emerge as representations for myself to remember the music that I’m experiencing because it takes a long time to notate a score, especially if it’s a large score for 100 performers.

Then the sketches start to get added to and they start to materialize the ideas in different ways and for different pieces. This will always have its own unique process for every single piece. But it is, for myself, a way to remember the internal listenings that I am meditating on or dreaming on.

ARCHORA had its world premiere last August at BBC Proms by the BBC Philharmonic. It is just now having its U.S. premiere, but there have been other performances and there is a recording that is coming out soon. After that first performance, did you revisit the work at all? Is there anything you learned from that performance or is the work done and you move on? 

The reason I’ve never edited a piece after performance is that in the composition process I really obsess so much over every single detail. I never hand in a score unless I am absolutely certain that it is ready. I have never edited a piece after performance, but of course I would if I would feel that it would need to be edited.

I’m going to try to describe my response to listening to ARCHORA because I found my breathing changing in peaks and valleys along with your music. I found that I got very still at moments; almost meditative. There were other moments as it turned up a bit more angst that my breathing changed in relation to that level of energy. Is that something that you hope a listener is going to do? 

I absolutely love that experience. When you approach music so openly that you completely dive in and become part of that music, I really love that. I always appreciate so much to hear people’s experiences and how they relate to the music. When you’re writing a piece of music you cannot control how people are going to react to it. You can only open yourself up and create the music that you want to bring into the world and invite people to have their own experience.

In ARCHORA there are these opposing forces, these calmer elements versus the more dark sound elements, that are balancing each other throughout the entire piece. I think it’s wonderful that you got so involved that you kind of became the music. 

If we want to hear mostly newer pieces, we could go to the album Atmospherqieus that was just released with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daníel Bjarnason. The album includes one of Missy Mazzoli’s works, who is the only non-Icelandic composer on the album. There’s a work by Daníel and two other composers from Iceland. Do you feel like we are in a golden age of of contemporary classical music coming out of Iceland?

I definitely think that there has been a real nice growth in contemporary music everywhere, not just in Iceland. But there has been a nice focus on Iceland lately and it’s wonderful to see that. We stand on the shoulders of of many giants. I think the different genres of music in Iceland that have been more popular, are still and have been more popular in the past, have helped us to shed a light on the contemporary classical scene in Iceland.

And it’s good that the world now knows that there’s more than Björk. 

Björk is, of course, our godmother of Icelandic music. We owe her so much and she’s amazing. 

You have the album that came out last month. You have the album coming out at the end of May. You’re getting performances of these works now, but these are works and recordings that have been completed for quite some time. What is your focus now and what is it you want to spend your time doing moving forward?

I always have a five-year schedule of commissions lined up and I’m always working on huge projects. So as I have been in the last few years and I’m continuing to do so, I have many projects on the schedule, which are very exciting. And a lot of performances which is a luxury.

Plus a lot of residencies coming up here in the UK and also in the US at Tanglewood this summer. The job of a composer is a lot more complicated than only writing music.

But at the moment I’m working on another orchestral piece or an orchestral installation and a cello concerto. There’s always so many things going on. I don’t know even where to start. 

How much does your work reflect how you are feeling emotionally about the world we live in? Do you feel in this time, where there’s as as much turmoil as there is joy, optimistic about the future of us as a civilization? What do you think the future has for our civilization?

As a person I am really optimistic. Of course, I am human and we are not always optimistic. But I do try to believe so much in the good that I have to always be positive and optimistic.

Your first question in this cluster of questions was also how the emotional state affects the music that I’m writing. It absolutely does. A lot of the ideas and inspirations that I talk about are more often than not metaphors. It’s impossible to live in this world and be an artist without having all the things in this world affecting you in one way or another while you’re working. I am no different than everybody else when it comes to that.

Main Photo: Anna Thorvaldsdottir (Photo by Anna Maggý/Courtesy the composer)

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Most of the events listed are free. When they are not, they are noted. Links to each event can be found in the individual names of the events.

Creole Giselle – Dance Theatre of Harlem – Now – June 19th

The classic ballet Giselle was reconceived by Arthur Mitchell in the early 1980s. In 1984, Dance Theatre of Harlem premiered Creole Giselle at the London Coliseum in England.

The original Giselle choreography was by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The production was staged by Frederic Franklin.

Creole Giselle garnered rave reviews in both London and New York. For some background on the creation of this work, I suggest reading this 1984 column from Burton Taylor writing for the New York Times.

Dance Theatre of Harlem is making the full ballet available for free viewing through June 19th. The film they are showing of Creole Giselle aired on television in Denmark in 1987.

Hamlet – Stratford Festival – Now – June 25th

Stratford Festival’s ongoing series of Shakespeare’s plays continues with this 2015 production of Hamlet.

Jonathan Goad stars as “Hamlet” with Seana McKenna as “”Gertrude; Geraint Wyn Davies as “Claudius/The Ghost”; Tim Campbell as “Horatio”; Adrienne Gould as “Ophelia;” Tom Rooney as “Polonius;” and Mike Shara as “Laertes.” The production is directed by Stratford Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino.

Stratford’s streaming productions of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens and Love’s Labour’s Lost are also still available this weekend.

The Madness of King George – National Theatre Live – Now – June 18th

Many of us first became aware of this Alan Bennett play by seeing the 1994 Nicholas Hytner film starring Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren.

This 2018 Nottingham Playhouse production stars Mark Gatiss as King George and Debra Gillett as Queen Charlotte. It was directed by Adam Penford.

Bennett’s play depicts a king whose relationship with what is real seems to change on a dime. He’s both a very powerful man and a wildly erratic leader whose delusions call into question his ability to lead. This prompts others to do whatever they can to undermine the King and take control of the Crown.

This production sold out and earned rave reviews. Bennett wrote staggeringly complicated roles for the two leads. It should be pure theater joy watching Gatiss and Gillett in this production.

Michael Tilson Thomas and Yuja Wang at Carnegie Hall – MediciTv – June 12th – June 14th

The collaboration between Carnegie Hall and Medici.Tv continues this weekend with a concert from May of 2019. Michael Tilson Thomas leads the New World Symphony and America’s Orchestral Academy. They are joined by pianist Yuja Wang.

The program features Julia Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth (in its New York premiere); Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 5 and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. The encores find the conductor taking to the piano for a solo performance of his composition You Come Here Often? The concert concludes with Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin.

There is no charge to watch this program.

Björk Ballet – San Francisco Ballet – June 12th – June 19th

San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound Festival in 2019 featured this ballet by Arthur Pita centered on the songs by best-selling singer/songwriter Björk.

Pita used a wide range of her music: from her first album in 1993, Debut, through 2017’s Utopia.

A playlist on SF Ballet’s website for Björk Ballet indicates that the songs used are “Overture” from Selmasongs; “All Is Full of Love” and “Bachelorette – Family Tree Version” from Homogenic; “Vokuro” from Medulla; “Frosti” from Vespertine; “The Gate” from Utopia; “Hyperballad” from Post and “The Anchor Song” from Debut.

Pita says that the duality he finds in Björk as an artist inspired the story he created for this ballet. “She’s this very playful, naughty fairy, dancing nymph, otherworldly creature, full of light and love. And then you’ve got this very deep, mournful, sorrowful, almost tragedy in some of her songs. So it’s like the theater masks.” 

La Fille mal gardée – Royal Ballet – June 12th – June 26th

A love story between Lise and a young farmer, Colas, is the centerpiece of this ballet choreographed by Frederick Ashton. This ballet had its world premiere in 1960.

The translation of the title is The Wayward Daughter. Clearly her parents aren’t too keen on her taste in men. Or in this case, her widowed mother.

Ashton based this work on a 1789 ballet by Jean Dauberval. The music was adapted by John Lanchberry from an 1828 score by Ferdinand Hérold.

Marianela Nuñez dances the role of Lise. Carlos Acosta dances the role of Colas. The role of Lise’s mother is danced by William Tuckett.

Il Trittico – San Francisco Opera – June 13th – June 14th

Puccini’s trilogy of operas seems popular this month. Last week the Royal Opera in London made their 2012 production available. This weekend San Francisco Opera makes their 2009 production available for viewing.

The three operas are Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. For details on these three operas, check out our Royal Opera House preview here.

Cast in this trilogy are soprano Patricia Racette (who performs in all three pieces), contralto Ewa Podles, tenor Brandon Jovanovich and baritone Paolo Gavanelli. Patrick Summers conducts this James Robinson production.

San Francisco Opera’s production received glowing reviews.

Live from Covent Garden – June 13th – 2:30 PM EDT/11:30 AM PDT

This is the first of three live performances from Covent Garden since it had to temporarily close. It takes place on Saturday evening in London.

The event is being streamed live and has an impressive line-up.

Benjamin Britten: On this Island op.11 (1937, to five poems by W.H. Auden), performed by soprano Louise Alder

George Butterworth: Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad (1911, to poems by A.E. Housman), performed by tenor Toby Spence

Ballet Interlude: New pas de deux, choreographed by Wayne McGregor to Richard Strauss Morgen! op.27 no.4 (1894, to the poem by John Henry Mackay). Louise Alder (soprano) and violinist (tbc). Performed by Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three Songs (2000, to texts by Stevie Smith, Thomas Hardy and Walt Whitman), performed by baritone Gerald Finley

arr. Benjamin Britten: The Crocodile (1941, to a traditional text and melody), performed by Gerald Finley

Gerald Finzi: Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun op.18 no.3 (1929, to a text by William Shakespeare), performed by Gerald Finley

George Frideric Handel: ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ (from the opera Alcina, 1735, after a story from Orlando furioso), performed by Louise Alder

Georges Bizet: ‘Au fond du temple saint’ (from the opera Les Pêcheurs de perles, 1863, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré), performed by Toby Spence and Gerald Finley

Vanessa – Glyndebourne – June 14th – June 21st

Composer Samuel Barber won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1958 opera that features a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. The world premiere was at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

This Glyndebourne production took place in 2018. Keith Warner directed and the orchestra is conducted by Jakub Hrůša.

Barber’s opera is a psychological drama about family relationships. The title character (sung by Emma Bell) finds herself alone after her boyfriend, Anatol, has left her. She pulls away from the world leaving her with only her mother (Rosalind Plowright) and her niece (Virginie Verrez) for company. Their world gets upended when Anatol’s son (Edgaras Montvidas) shows up twenty years later.

Jeremy Jordan – Seth Rudetsky Concert Series – June 14th – 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT

Seth Rudetsky travels across the country with Broadway stars for evenings of conversation and songs. Unable to take his shows on the road, he’s bringing them to our homes.

This week’s performance features Jeremy Jordan who starred in the musicals Bonnie and Clyde and Newsies (for which he received both Drama Desk and Tony Award nominations). He was also featured in the television series Smash.

The live performance takes place as listed above. If you cannot watch that performance, there is an encore presentation on June 15th at 3 PM EDT/12 PM PDT. These are not free events. Tickets are $25 not including service fees.

Upcoming concerts will feature Seth with Jessie Mueller (Beautiful), Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon), Melissa Errico (Passion) and Audra McDonald (Porgy and Bess).

Life in a Pandemic: “One Day At a Time:” Norman Lear and Rita Moreno in Conversation with RuPaul – 92Y – June 14th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Legendary television producer Norman Lear and living legend Rita Moreno will discuss the many lives of the reboot of One Day at a Time with RuPaul. This is a live-streaming event presented by the 92Y in New York.

I find it unlikely that any of these three need introduction, but here goes. Norman Lear is the five-time Emmy Award winning creator of such shows as All in the Family and Maude. He has also won a Peabody Award and has been awarded a Kennedy Center Honor.

Rita Moreno is an EGOT. She won two Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award, an Oscar for West Side Story and a Tony Award for The Ritz. She also happens to have a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a National Medal of Arts, a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award and is also the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.

RuPaul is the six-time Emmy Award winning host and producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Tickets are required for this event which is not free. The price of each ticket is $20. You must be registered in advance in order to get access to the event.

Before we close out our Best Bets at Home: June 12th – June 14th, here are a few reminders:

Friday’s at Five from SF Jazz features Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi. This takes place at 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT on June 12th.

The Metropolitan Opera programming this weekend features their April 2020 At-Home Gala on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the 2011-2012 production of Handel’s Rodelinda with Renée Fleming.

The musical Allegiance streaming on Broadway on Demand has been extended through June 23rd. You can get details at our preview here.

Here ends our list of your Best Bets at Home: June 12th – June 14th. Enjoy your weekend. Stay safe and healthy!

Main Photo: Elizabeth Powell and Ulrik Birkkjaer in Björk Ballet at San Francisco Ballet (Photo ©Erik Tomasson/Courtesy of SF Ballet)

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