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Fantastic chamber opera: The Little Match Girl
Date
2021-2022
Short content about the Little Match Girl
TINA MAUKO: THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, Fantastic chamber opera in 6 pictures
Protagonists:
a) The Girl: lyrical soprano
b) Lady 1, Wind, Grandmother, Woman in the sanctuary, Mother-Monster,
Outgoing Lady 2: mezzo-soprano
c) Lady 2, Wind, Woman in the sanctuary, Daughter - Monster, Mother,
Outgoing Lady 1: soprano
d) Lady 3, Wind, Announcer and Woman in the sanctuary, Goose: coloratura soprano
e) Lord 1, Father, Mature Indian Buddhist, Father – Monster, Outgoing Lord 2: bass-baritone
f) Boy, Lord 2, Spirit, Brother, Young Indian Buddhist, Son - Monster, Outgoing Lord 1: tenor
The story takes place on New Year's Eve, Denmark 1846.
ACT ONE
INTRODUCTION
The girl arrives in a place where she is almost knocked down by a carriage, losing a slipper that is too big for her. A boy comes by, picks up a slipper, and says he will use it for a cradle when he has children.
1. Picture
The girl with a single slipper on her feet is in a hurry to sell matches in the terrible cold so that her poor family can warm their home. In the city, she encounters indifferent and reproachful people. When the snowflakes try to calm her down, she thinks that the snow is actually a Spirit that is somehow familiar to her. The Spirit encourages her and foretells her cruel fate: »Five times you will illuminate the world.« Then she hears the words of the wind: »Your grace is eternity, your heart is wealth, your hands are a dryad, your feet are boundless waves.«
2. Picture
In her memories, the girl returns home to her family, not far from the city. Homeliness, nostalgia, a fireplace, holes in the roof, joy, and serenity. Mother, father, grandmother, brother, and girl. Father reads to the family from the book and passes on his knowledge. In the background, the grandmother spun threads on a spinning wheel. She will knit slippers for the children. They talk about the aurora borealis, and at that moment mother shudders.
3. Picture
After we learn that the grandmother died, the father fell ill and the boy went out into the world, the brother's story is revealed. Denmark. The boy becomes a Buddhist. The boy arrives in the city early in the morning, happy, and full of optimism, hope, interest, and desire for knowledge. While observing the tedious work of people, he sees a Buddhist smiling.
4. Picture
India, a competition of two thinkers. It takes place on the first full moon in May, to celebrate the birth of Buddha-Vesak. The boy has developed into a great Buddhist thinker during all this time and will compete with an Indian rival in the understanding of the world. The last and most important question that will decide about the winner: “The disease that walks the world in 2021 is somebody's slave. His son and daughter are ravaging the world and people. Who are these? ”A boy in a state of transcendence knows the answer and has a cure for this age.
ACT TWO
5. Picture
A lonely girl approaches a house in the twilight.
The family of monsters prepares for dinner on New Year's Eve: Father (Greed), Mother (Selfishness), Son (Jealousy), Daughter (Devaluation), and roasted Goose. The girl stares through the window at the family but sees something completely different than she expected.
6. Picture
The girl is dying The frightened girl, all cold decides to warm up with matches that she should sell. The drummer appears at the first ignition, but he disappears as soon as the girl wants to touch him. She decides to light another match. Then she sees an eaten goose, leaning straight towards her from the warm room and begging her to help her. In the duet »How beautiful the world would be without suffering«, the light disappears. With the third ignition, all her beloved family appears, giving her the answers to the questions which have plagued her all along. She realizes why her brother hasn’t returned home anymore. She wonders if she really sees him now or if he is just an illusion. When the grandmother says that the magic glow is approaching, the light dries up. The fourth ignition calms her and reminds her how her grandmother once announced that she would soon see the aurora borealis. With the fifth ignition, the girl steps on a magical glow and says goodbye to this world.
Cast
Katja Konvalinka, soprano
Katarina Kobal, soprano
Polona Plaznik, coloratura soprano
Irena Yebuah Tiran, mezzo-soprano
Klemen Torkar, tenor
Lovro Korošec, baritone
Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre Ensemble:
Nino Mureškič, percussion
Miha Firšt, double bass
Mirko Jevtović, accordion
Primož Fleischman, bansuri and tenor saxophone
Peter Jud, violin
Damir Višič, sarod
Location
Stara elektrarna (Ljubljana), Festival Ljubljana, gledališče Murska Sobota, gledališče Koper.
Promo video
In 2021 a new Slovenian opera written by the Slovenian pianist, composer, and improviser Tina Mauko came into the world. The artist wrote the opera libretto by adapting the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen entitled The Little Match Girl. The story’s content, as she says herself, is still relevant today. On a global level, it portrays the void between the rich and the poor, while on a personal level it depicts the thin line separating the real world from the surreal. The composer presents this dualism (which she also touches upon in the story by using Buddhist teachings) through music by juxtaposing different worlds: the instruments of Western European classical music are joined by the instruments of Indian classical music. In the music, she also combines the dichotomies of ordered freedom and improvised order. This opera about the dreams and hopes of a dying child, and about the world beyond ordinary experience, directed by Rocc, the first Slovenian to have a university degree in opera direction, will be performed by the familiar faces of the Slovene Chamber Music Theatre, and this time the chamber orchestra have been also joined by Slovene musicians who are adept at playing instruments from the Indian subcontinent.
