Christofer Elgh

“This Opera is the tip of the iceberg of the new international wave of politically conscious art music that we have seen little of to date on the large Swedish concert stages, but which is finding alternative spaces such as Bastionen in Malmö.”/ Hanna Höglund, Expressen

Valerie’s voice is based on Valerie Solana’s SCUM manifesto. The opera form is open, flexible and written for soprano, four electric guitars and electronics. The unusual form and cast means that the work can be completely changed depending on the dramaturgy and stage direction. It is unusual for a newly written opera to be staged several times after its first premiere. The music in Valerie’s voice bridges different musical worlds and creates something new and relevant for the audience of our time.

“Fragments of the manifesto become flesh and blood– yes, even a uterus that the costume designer Åsa Gjerstad has drawn on the singer’s underwear. Helena Röhr’s direction allows Pfeiffer to play with body language in an exposé of submissive female roles and macho poses. Prerecorded recitation of the texts alternate with the voice part in a musical power struggle between frenetic fingering on strings and Solanas’ furious settling of scores with the cult of the male genius. She lustily rips apart the pages of a musical score and proclaims that everything a man touches ”turns to shit”./Johanna Paulsson, Dagens Nyheter

Valerie’s voice was staged in Germany2023 at Stadttheater Gießen and Hochschule für Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt.

For more information please visit Valerie’s Voice homepage

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“It is a dream game-like fantasy that revolves around how Ada’s (Anneli Jupiter) creative impulses are torn between reason and emotion. They are represented by her parents, the poet Lord Byron (Håkan Ekenäs) and the mathematician Lady Byron (Kristina Hansson Unander) – here depicted as two ghostly bust figures in white marble”. Loretto Villalobos, SvD

“Musically the most intricate is Christofer Elgh’s Ada, here there is a chromatic line in Ada (Anneli Jupiter) that is skilfully varied in her fight against her father Lord Byron, while the voices are woven together without losing their identities” Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet

Music Christofer Elgh
Libretto Sigrid Herrault
Directed by  Ola Eliasson
Dramaturgy Katarina Aronsson

” I’m finding that sincerity and trying to be as simple or direct as possible I’d like is often taken for sheer stupidity”
– Norma Jeane Baker (Marilyn Monroe)

Christofer Elgh’s “Sincerity” was composed directly for Alexandra Büchel and Norrbotten NEO based on Norma Jeane Baker’s poem of the same name.

“Christofer Elgh’s gripping and sometimes touching primal screaming reaction around Norma Jeane Baker, alias Marilyn Monroe. Against a background of fiery red light shaped into something that can bring to mind both roses and blood-flowing brain twists, based on Baker / Monroe’s disillusioned text about the difficulty of being sincere and true in a world of lies, her in many ways tragic fate. Musically, we move from a slow introduction with crisp bells, strings over percussion and buzzing blows straight into an air-conditioned nightmare of hot-pitched sounds and sudden silences, sharp as gunshots.”
– Anders Lundqvist, Norrbottenskuriren

Alexandra Büchel soprano
B Tommy Andersson conductor
Norrbotten Neo

“Christofer Elgh’s newly written music is both playful and powerful and it gives a lot of space”. “Likewise, the performance highlights the philosophical sides of Lewis Carolls Reality is turned upside down, upside down, magnified and diminished – nothing is ever as you think. We hear bells ticking and going without anyone really catching up “,/Johan Fingal JP

Composer Christofer Elgh’s specially written chamber opera
Alice in Wonderland  the teaparty had its premiere on September 18th 2021 in the Tabergsgruvan (Taberg mine) in Jönköping. The chamber opera is a part of the all-art work SUBTERRANEA III.

Scenkonst Jönköping, the artist collective Subterranea, international artist Sebastian Weissenbacher, the composer Christofer Elgh and Jönköping’s free professional opera group Minopera  working together with local actors and youth theatre group Teaterstickorna. Together they presented a cross-art work in an unusual underground enviornment, the mine.

For the third year this cross-artistic project with a regional, national and this year international interest is spreading cultural expressions for the public to be touched by art and nature in harmony. This is done through first performance of Christofer Elgs  opera Alice in Wonderland  – the teaparty, newly created art, magical lighting design and video art. This creates harmony with the mine’s different environments and taking into account its fragility and uniqueness in nature. In total, there was six performances in Tabergsgruvan  during one weekend 18-19 September 2021.

In 2023 “Alice in Wonderland-The Tea Party” was performed at Göteborgsoperan on the 3rd and 5th of November in collaboration with Gothenburg opera youth choir and percussionists from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg.

In 2025 MinOpera performs “Alice i underlandet – tebjudningen” on their tenth anniversary at Spira Cultural Center the 26th of October.

Annika Liljenroth directs and the five soloists are Julia Ojansivu (Alice), Ebba Sandwall (Little Alice), Ann Roach (Hasselmus), Ove Gotting (The Easter Bunny) and Wolfgang Veith (The Mad Hatter), Gothenburg opera youth choir.

“The performance highlights the bizarre and humorous sides of Alice in Wonderland, not least through the fantastic costumes and scenography”
” All artistic expressions complement each other and contribute to a unity – a work of art – and an experience beyond the ordinary “./Johan Fingal JP

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