Opera|The Morgonstjärnan opera will be premiered at the Finnish National Opera in January 2026.
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In January 2026, the Finnish National Opera premieres the opera Morgonstjärna – Aamutähti.
The opera is based on the book Morgenstjernen by Karl Ove Knausgård and is the first opera based on his books.
Sebastian Fagerlund composes and Gunilla Hemming prepares the libretto, Thomas de Mallet Burgess directs.
The performances are conducted by Hannu Lintu, and the opera is performed in Swedish, like Fagerlund’s previous work Höstsonate.
Finland The national opera will be premiered by the composer in January 2026 From Sebastian Fagerlund and librettist Gunilla from Hemming the opera he commissioned The morning star – Aamutähti. The opera is based on a Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgårdin The morning star(2020, Finnish 2021) and is the first opera based on his books.
Knausgård rose to the forefront of Nordic literature with an autobiographical six-volume work My fight-series (2009–2011), where he observed himself, his loved ones and his surroundings in detail. In the morning star he mixes elements of fantasy with realistic narration.
Sebastian Fagerlund says that he read Knausgård’s book as soon as it was published.
“I reacted to the fact that a new way of expression had appeared in his narration. In this story, both a very mythical and epic quality goes hand in hand, as well as the great richness of detail, intimate descriptions of people and events that are typical of him. I realized that here are all the conditions for a grand opera,” says Fagerlund.
Fagerlund and Hemming presented the topic to the Finnish National Opera, which decided to commission the work. The morning star-opera is directed by the artistic director of the National Opera Thomas de Mallet Burgess and the performances are led by the chief conductor of the National Opera Hannu Lintu.
Fagerlundin the previous opera The autumn sonata was first introduced At the National Opera in the fall of 2017. The libretto was also prepared by Gunilla Hemming, as the source material Ingmar Bergman screenplay of the film of the same name. As well as The autumn sonataalso future The morning star presented in Swedish.
According to Fagerlund, the scale of the stories is different Autumn Sonata and Morning Star Bunny from each other, although these operas also have common features.
”The autumn sonata takes place in a very closed space where we see the main characters’ conflicts and their solutions, but Morning star anise we are moving on a much larger scale. At the same time, however, it is also an enormously strong personal drama, and I think that is always the most essential thing in opera: that there are great emotions, events and destinies that we can relate to.”
Karl Ove Knausgård in April 2022.