An entirely new work meets an entirely new form: Circus Days and Nights is a circus opera in two acts, written by legendary composer Philip Glass. Its inspiration is Robert Lax’s masterwork Circus Days and Nights, a collection of poems that draws us into the poet’s fascination with acrobats and the circus lifestyle and takes us on the road with him when he “runs away” and joins a circus in 1940s America. For Lax, the circus becomes a metaphor for life itself – the cycle of life and death – and for human yearning and striving. Circus Days and Nights will be a boundary-crossing performance that brings the circus ring into the opera house.
I have had the rights to the poem for about ten years, but I couldn’t write the piece because I hadn’t found my circus. When I saw Tilde’s staging of Satyagraha it struck me: Here’s my circus
PHILIP GLASS
In Robert Lax’s poem and vision of the circus as a metaphor for life, I discovered a soulmate and ever since, Circus Days and Nights has had a permanent place on my nightstand. In Philip Glass’s music, I heard the ultimate circus music, music that commingles with the circus disciplines. Having the opportunity to bring together these two sources of inspiration is dizzying and fills me with a sense of humility in the face of life’s breathtaking leaps of faith.
TILDE BJÖRFORS
I read the poems and I was really touched by their beauty, their simplicity in a sense, and yet their profundity. The way Lax envisions Circus as an act of creation and the cycle of putting up a show and taking it down is the cycle of life itself.
DAVID HENRY HWANG
Circus Days and Nights
An opera by Philip Glass
Libretto: David Henry Hwang, Tilde Björfors
Based on the poems by Robert Lax
Director and concept: Tilde Björfors
Set and costume design: Magdalena Åberg
Lighting Design: Ellen Ruge and Robert Hvenström
Sound Design: Avgoustos Psillas
Conductor: Minna Weurlander
Rigging Design: Saar Rombout
Choreography: Methinee Wongtrakoon, Simon Wiborn
Circus artists
Aaron Hakala
Andreas De Ryck
Beatriz Pantojo
Methinee Wongtrakoon
Nikolas Pulka
Peter Åberg
Simon Wiborn
Soloists
Elin Rombo
Margaux de Valensart
Jakob Högström
Anton Ljungqvist
Ensemble
Karolina Blixt
Lars Johansson Brissman
Pierre Heault
Susanna Stern
Musicians
Minna Weurlander, accordion
Viktor Nordliden, cello
Inga Zeppezauer, violin
Blagoj Lamnjov, clarinet
Oscar Fransson, trumpet
Martin Jönsson, bass trombone
Sigvald Fersum, percussion
Circus riggers
Mathieu Grégoire
Saar Rombout
Malmö Opera chorus patricipates in the performances at Malmö Opera
World premiere on May 29, at Malmö Opera, Sweden.
Circus Days and Nights is a co-production between Cirkus Cirkör and Malmö Opera