Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Wide Slumber Premieres at Reykjavík Arts Festival
May. 05, 2014
Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Wide Slumber, a new music theater piece for three singers, chamber ensemble and electronics, premieres at Tjornbíó Theater on May 24, as part of the 28th Annual Reykjavík Arts Festival. Produced by VaVaVoom Theatre and Bedroom Community, the work is based on the award-winning book of poetry, Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists, by celebrated Canadian author a.rawlings.
The evening length work tracks the stages of sleep and pairs them with the life cycle of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). VaVaVoom elaborates on the production:
In the staging of Wide Slumber the audience is lulled into a cocoon where the borders between dreams and reality are blurred. A group of singers, musicians, and performers conjure an ethereal and visceral world of cyclic metamorphosis through music, puppetry and moving scenography. Each of the three singers embody personae within the original text; The Somnopterist, The Insomniac and The Lepidopterist. They share the stage with a three piece band and The Weaver who spins his silky threads and weaves a cloth of dreams.
In creating Wide Slumber, the artists worked closely with a team of scientists from Harvard University’s Department of Comparative Zoology and University College London’s Rihel Lab of Sleep Research. The final result pairs Sigurðsson’s exquisite score with dream-like visuals from VavaVoom Theatre, with set design by Eva Signy Berger, props and puppetry by Marie Keller and S. Sunna Reynisdóttir, and costume design by Harpa Einarsdóttir. Sara Martí directs the May 24 premiere production with two subsequent performances on May 25 and 26.
For more information on Valgeir Sigurõsson, please visit www.fabermusic.com
Details on the work and the premiere can be found at www.wideslumber.com
Valgeir Sigurðsson
Wide Slumber (2014)
a music theatre piece inspired by Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists by a.rawlings
for three singers, chamber ensemble and electronics
viola da gamba, organ/keyboards, percussion, electronics
60-70'