Trond Reinholdtsen/ The Norwegian Opra
HISTORY DOES NOT EXIST
This new and overwhelming piece by Jennifer Walshe for Andreas Borregaard and the Oslo Sinfonietta explores the notion of “personhood”.
What does it mean to be a person at a time when our every moment is surveilled, mined and monetised by the devices we have extended our consciousness into?
What agency can we hope to have, when even one of the most famous pop stars in the world has no control over her own life?
What does it mean to be human when a billionaire class dreams of upgrading their existence and living forever, while the rest of us struggle with what to do with our hands when talking to a stranger at a party?
In this commissioned work by the Irish composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe, the Oslo Sinfonietta surround the accordionist Andreas Borregaard and subject him to a range of tests and procedures.
Borregaard plays the accordion, performs obscure choreographies and watches films laden with subliminal messages; he is scored for how well he can fall over, he moves objects in endless patterns and drinks smoothies in strange colours. Are we in a laboratory? Mission control? A luxury spa? Or are we simply at home?
Premiere: Ultima, Oslo. 2025
Contributers:
Trond Reinholdtsen
Oslo Sinfonietta
Christian Eggen
Snorre Hvamen
Léonie Rossel
Øystein Hvamen Rasmussen
Maria Sofia Rizzi
Harald Kolaas
Sara Li Stensrud
Hild Borchgrevink
Gratianne Lagauzère
Kai Johnsen
Tobias Schülke
Leonie Stalder
Niklas Adam
Production: Oslo Sinfonietta, The Norwegian Opra
In collaboration with: Black Box teater, Oslo Sinfonietta, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival
Supported by: Arts Council Norway
The unravelling of Europe through three videos, 18 musicians and an unexpected theatrical intervention.
Across three large screens—Russia, France, and Germany—The Followers of Ø present an operatic, polyphonic rendering of European history, from the dawn of time to the First World War. In a drama filled with power, utopias, resistance, and "history as the Realization of Spirit", we encounter iconic figures such as Napoleon, Beethoven, Hegel, and Marx, alongside the fearsome "Einzelgänger". Events take an unexpected turn when a group of mysterious anthropologists propel the story into our own time: HISTORY DOES NOT EXIST.
Oslo Sinfonietta, conducted by Christian Eggen, intensify the opera's themes with pseudo-symphonic intermezzi in neoclassical style. Leitmotifs are further developed and the action continues on a subconscious and virtual level—towards spectacular, visionary, and revolutionary heights.
Trond Reinholdtsen is the founder of The Norwegian Opra, an experimental platform bending opera, theory, performance, and satire. The Followers of Ø is a radical-utopian sect that seeks to erase the boundary between life and idea. The base their worldview on the Ø films, which they interpret and transform into revolutionary practice in the midst of today's apocalypse. The performance expands on the plot introduced in The Chosen Ones - a "multi-techno-media-installation-performance-opera-documentary-ritual" presented at Black Box teater during Ultima 2024.
Photos: Ultima
