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Jostein Stalheim
Ophelia Scene for mezzo soprano and piano (2007)
(born Voss, 23. July 1960)
First performance: Siljustøl, May 26th 2007
Bettina Smith (mezzo), Einar Røttingen (piano)
Jostein Stalheim was born in Voss, Norway in 1960 and started composing at an early age. When only 17 years old, his first works were broadcast on both radio and television. He studied composition and accordion at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen, Sibelius Academy and at the Norwegian State Academy of Music. Stalheim appears regularly in European festivals as soundpainter, performer and composer.
Stalheim has written music for orchestra, chamber-ensembles, solo, multimedia and also site-specific productions. Stage music comprises a considerable part of his production; among others the opera “Professor Warrant's Progress” and the ballets; “Watch”, “Volatile”, “Alrekr” and “Kast”. He has worked in theatres both as composer and musician, a.o The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Hordaland Teater, Den Nationale Scene, The Norwegian National Ballet and Danseteatret/Carte Blanche in Norway. He has received commissions from ensembles both in Norway and abroad.
Stalheim is internationally recognized as an accordion soloist and performs at festivals and with several international orchestras. He had his breakthrough in 1984 in Nordic Solistbiennale were he performed with Esa Pekka Salonen and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. He appears in numerous recordings, both as soloist, as chamber musician and with orchestra; for example Broderfolkonsert, the double concerto by Lasse Thoresen with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
He received a Grant from Norwegian Art Council 2014-2015 to compose music for the opera La Peur et les Soins with libretto by Astrid Luisa Niebuhr. He has composed the music for Watch with premiere in Dansens Hus, Oslo.
Stalheim also contributed as a composer to the science opera Rosetta`s Stone; a cooperation between the two librettists Oded Ben-Horin, John F. McGrew and the co-composer John Bilotta with premiere August 12th 2016 in San Francisco. In the same year he had several large projects including Soundpainting with the contemporary ensemble BIT20 and Performance Artist Bergen.
Stalheim’s music has many endearing qualities. It often embraces the absurd and the illogical from an almost childlike perspective. There is never a hint of pretension in it and, with its deadpan delivery it often leaves the listener in doubt as to whether it is meant to be taken seriously or not seriously at all. In common with the music of Messiaen (a composer Stalheim deeply admires) Stalheim’s compositions tend, with their disarming honesty, to have a cleansing effect on the listener. His compositions often feel like suggestions rather than statements. They are never intrusive or imposing and are always entertaining, thought-provoking, surprising and permeated with a fundamental lightness.
(Source: https://www.josteinstalheim.no/)
Ophelia Scene was one of two major works the Norwegian mezzo soprano Bettina Smith commissioned for a special project centred on female characters through history. The other work was Ketil Hvoslef’s “From the Gospel of Maria Magdalena”. These formed the bulk of the 2015 CD release “Voices of Women” (LWC1067), which also included Fartein Valen’s small op 6 and 7 Goethe cycles. The last mentioned are based on, respectively, the characters of Suleika and Mignon: one of them real, the other fictional.
Ophelia Scene is based on the fifth scene from Act IV of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The text is an abstraction. It is taken from Ophelia’s role only, with only two very brief interjections by her brother Laertes and King Claudius – spoken by the pianist.
Ophelia’s unstable, practically deranged state of mind gives the scene in the play its peculiar atmosphere. The unexpected death of her father Polonius has affected her to the point of losing her mind. She is lost in her inner world of grief, speaking and singing often incoherent nonsense. Stalheim masterfully conveys Ophelia’s disturbed mental state by using the entire range of the mezzo soprano voice, including its outer extremes, from G sharp below middle C to A flat, two octaves above – not forgetting an unspecified “lowest possible” note in measure 190. When Stalheim uses these two extremes, the voice becomes in danger of losing its natural beauty which, again, ties in perfectly with Ophelia’s abject distress. Otherwise, most of the vocal part consists of rather simple lines, often pentatonic or in easily recognizable modes. In three occasions, Ophelia’s speech – in Stalheim’s treatment – becomes fragmented, as if pointlessly trying to make sense of a reality that she cannot fathom, even less control. These sequences are to be found between measures 122-159, 192-203 and 285-322. In the first of these, Ophelia’s broken utterances are framed by the two outer notes of the piano played staccato: a very characteristic Stalheim device.
The piano part carries most of the mental and spiritual complexity of the situation. It does so mostly by playing music that challenges and disturbs the simplicity of the vocal lines. The introduction seems intent on setting the general atmosphere of the period (late 1500s-early 1600s) in conjunction with the actual scene: the ornate figurations in the first eight measures may well bring to mind Ophelia’s lute. The quick, major-second alternations of this “lute” figure will seep through much of the work, at times transformed into minor thirds. Between mm. 65 and 73 the whole-tone harmony beautifully complements Ophelia’s list of flowers, suggesting their inebriating perfume. The piano writing is, for the most part, very sparse, often limited to two single lines. An unusual feature of the score – given the character of the music and the time it was composed – is Stalheim’s use of key signatures in several sections.
The episode from m. 330 to m. 350, with its repeated notes and chords, becomes increasingly claustrophobic. The low register of the voice from m. 341 contributes to the dejected atmosphere, in spite of the, for the most part, recognizably tonal harmony. This stands in sharp contrast to the extremely sensitive ending of the piece (m. 351 – end). Its cadencing high chords may bring to mind the ending of Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”. Tellingly, Stalheim asks the singer to sing pianissimo in her highest register, as the disconsolate Ophelia states
They bore him bare-faced on the bier,
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny,
And in his grave rains many a tear. –
Fare you well, my dove.
Ophelia Scene stands amongst Stalheim’s most affecting compositions. At over 15 minutes of duration, it is a substantial single-movement contribution to the abundant repertoire of Shakespeare-inspired music works.
Ricardo Odriozola December 24th 2023
German preface not available ...
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