The year 2022 promises to be as rich as it is eclectic for the Franco-Israeli artist Keren Ann, among her creations we can discover “Red Waters”, an opera based on an Icelandic legend.
A pop opera
the pop opera “Red Waters” by Keren Ann and Bardi Johannsson brings together a symphony orchestra, five opera singers, three dancers and a chamber choir to tell a Gothic Icelandic legend. Performed from January 28 to February 4 at the Opéra de Rennes, Red Waters immerses us in the story of a young man who returns to his native village. In this place cut off from the world called Red Waters, the wine that the inhabitants drink has replaced the water of the rivers. A love story will be born between the young man and a resident. Both are unaware that they are in fact twins separated at birth. Their forbidden passion will shake up the unsaid that weighs on this strange community.
Helped by the lyricist of Bjôrk
This opera has already been created and staged in 2011 in Rouen by director Arthur Nauzyciel. In 2009, he proposed to the French singer and composer (of Israeli and Dutch origin) Keren Ann Zeidel and the Icelandic musician Barði Jóhannsson, who together form the duo Lady & Bird, to write the synopsis of an opera. They tackled the project with another Icelander, the poet Sjón (who is also the lyricist of Bjork and Radiohead) and imagined an opera in six scenes around the history of this reclusive village where strange rituals are perpetuated. An opera as strange as it is fascinating to discover at the Opéra de Rennes, in Brittany.
