Essays

Give me something new!

The Tiger Lillies are renowned and infamous for their dark, often macabre humour and performances balancing between the repulsive and the beautiful. Anders Beyer writes about the new theatre piece Edgar Allan Poe’s Haunted Palace – world premiere during the 2017 edition of Bergen International Festival. 

How did Norway become Scandi-cool in the wider world?

Throughout 2017 Southbank Centre in London housed the Nordic cultural campaign “Nordic Matters”, an ambitious initiative where the public could enjoy different kinds of Nordic culture and lifestyle. Time-honoured ideas of the Nordic may point the way for a changing world.

The longing for the sublime

The theme for Bergen International Festival 2018 is longing. In this essay, Anders Beyer shares a personal experience about longing. The piece illustrates that much of the art we appreciate wishes to show us the way to a state of mind and being where time stops, and you just are.

Our dream of an alliance

The political and cultural situation in Europe makes it relevant to attempt to define afresh the relationship between Nordic music and the wider world. It is possible that the musical institutions in the Nordic countries are too deeply rooted in the conventional, central-European criteria. That it is say that we try to compete on others’ terms, in the struggle for famous works, famous composers, orchestras, prices and names.

Letter from the Balkans

Nordic-Balkan-Culture-Switch takes place in 2004 and 2005. The aim of the project is to build networks between the Nordic countries and the West Balkans.

Komponist på skråplaner

Optegnelser til Per Nørgårds 6. Symfoni.

Festivaler, osteklokker og fremtidsmusik

Frihåndstegning med nedslag i hændelser i dansk musik 1995-2005. Festskrift til Bent Lorentzen.

En historie om kjærlighet

Livet, kjærligheten og døden står til skue i Kaija Saariahos opera L’amour de loin, som oppføres på Den Norske Opera & Ballett.

De etablerede outsidere

Om det internationale gennembrud for norske musikere, komponister og festivaler. Optegnelser fra et kvart århundrede med norsk samtidsmusik.