‘…outstanding entertainment, a true feast for eyes and ears, a performance I cannot stop thinking about and long to see again and again.’
Valgeir Sigurdsson’s musical-theatre work, WIDE SLUMBER for Lepidopterists, received high acclaim after its premiere at the Reykjavik Arts Festival, Iceland, in May 2014 . The evening-long music-theatre performance weaves live music composed by Sigurdsson with visuals created by VaVaVoom Theatre into a piece for three singers, four musicians and electronics, inspired by a. rawlings’s award-winning book of poems 'Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists', which tracks the stages of sleep and pairs them with the life cycle of lepidopterae.
In the staging of WIDE SLUMBER the audience is lulled into a cocoon where the borders between dreams and reality are blurred. A group of singers, musicians, and performers conjure an ethereal and visceral world of cyclic metamorphosis through music, puppetry and moving scenography. Each of the three singers embody personae within the original text; The Somnopterist, The Insomniac and The Lepidopterist. They share the stage with a three-piece band and The Weaver who spins his silky threads and weaves a cloth of dreams…
Please find translated reviews below:
****1/2
“the staging was extremely successful and lighting and video design fantastic (...) the music was well composed, some of the best I’ve heard from Valgeir (...) outstanding entertainment, a true feast for eyes and ears, a performance I cannot stop thinking about and long to see again and again” MBL
MORGUNBLAÐIÐ, Á.M.
“A great and magnificent weaving takes place onstage (...) extremely well done, both by singers, musicians and composer”
VÍÐSJÁ, Þ.E.S.
“Sigurðsson's music was entrancing and hypnotic (...) the singing was fantastic and the accompanying live music no less (...) Berger's set was elaborate and unusual (...) Einarsdóttir's costumes beautiful and exciting (...) These groups (VaVaVoom & Bedroom Community) are practically able to conjure wizardry, as one witnessed repeatedly”
TMM, S.A.
WIDE SLUMBER
Music-theatre piece for 3 singers, 4 musicians and electronics
Duration: 70 minutes
viola da gamba - organ(=keyboards) - perc – electronics
First performance: 24.5.2014, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Tjarnarbíó Theatre, Reykjavik, Iceland
CREDITS
Music: Valgeir Sigurðsson
Text: a.rawlings
Singers: Alexi Murdoch, Sasha Siem, Ásgerður Júníusdóttir
Performer: Sigríður Sunna Reynisdóttir
Musicians: James McVinnie, Liam Byrne, Ólafur Björn Ólafsson
Adaptation for stage: Sigríður Sunna Reynisdóttir & Sara Martí (VaVaVoom)
Director: Sara Martí
Set design: Eva Signý Berger
Costume design: Harpa Einarsdóttir
Props and puppetry design: Sigríður Sunna Reynisdóttir og Marie Keller
Light and video design: Ingi Bekk
Animation and video art: Pierre-Alain Giraud
Live sound: Dan Bora
Choreography: Vala Rúnarsdóttir