In the children’s opera Nils Karlsson Daumling by Thierry Tidrow, a boy named Bertil befriends a magical figure, Nils, who teaches him to change size through song. This playful narrative mirrors the experience of contemporary composers, who often feel pressured to be original. Tidrow highlights that writing for children is liberating as it connects artists to their playful, childlike creativity. The opera is notable for its mobility, being performed over 300 times since 2019 and fostering a new venue in Vienna dedicated to youth productions. Bogdan Roscic emphasizes the freeing nature of writing for younger audiences.
For contemporary classical composers, writing children's opera can be similarly transfiguring—it's like casting a spell that lets them be both big and small.
Writing for children, by comparison, can be liberating. As Tidrow often says, They haven't read Adorno.
Bogdan Roscic, the State Opera's general director, said in a phone interview, And writing for children actually is very liberating, I think, simply because one can discover his inner child.
Nils Karlsson Daumling, an unusually mobile children's opera, is scored for a soprano and a speaking violinist, and can be performed on a set that fits in a van.
#childrens-opera #creative-freedom #contemporary-classical-music #nils-karlsson-daumling #astid-lindgren
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