USHER - premiere at FOLKOPERAN, Stockholm (SE)

In USHER Van Parys develops a chamber music theatre that probes the category of the uncanny in a specific musical and theatrical way.

Since her 2015 opera "Private View" based on an Alfred Hitchcock film, if not earlier, the Belgian Annelies Van Parys has established her reputation as one of the most innovative composers of contemporary musical theatre. Her work is distinguished by a keen interest in the facets of the human singing voice as well as an idiosyncratic approach to instrumentation. Starting with the material of the uncompleted opera – Debussy left behind several libretto drafts, a musical fragment of about 20 minutes and some sketches – in "Usher" Van Parys develops a chamber music theatre that probes the category of the uncanny in a specific musical and theatrical way.

Music Annelies Van Parys / Claude Debussy 
Text Gaea Schoeters / Claude Debussy based on "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe

Commissioned by Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Folkoperan Stockholm

Musical Director Marit Strindlund 
Director, set designer, light Philippe Quesne 
Dramaturgy Roman Reeger