Opera Bergen - 40 years with opera

Music & culture

Jan 11

Who: Opera Bergen

What: Producer of opera performances at an international level, either alone or in cooperation with cultural institutions on regional, national and international level.

Where: Norway, Bergen

Project period: 2023

Opera Bergen was founded in 1982 by Anne Randine Øverby and Tone Kvam Thorsen. During the years, the aim has been the same; to produce opera performances at an international level, either alone or in cooperation with cultural institutions on regional, national and international level.

Opera Bergen has, since its founding, produced more than 160 operas, where quite a number has been first performances ever in Norway or Scandinavia, and the work list also includes fully staged production of most of standard works in opera.

Opera Bergen has also established and developed the medieval castle in Bergen as an open-air stage for acoustic opera and contributed to bringing the art to a broad audience, locals and tourists in Bergen.

Another thing that distinguishes Opera Bergen from a lot of other opera producers is the ability to choose different and special venues for their performances. The choice of venue is always related either to the work that is to be staged, that being Suor Angelica/Puccini or MASS/Bernstein in a church, Flying Dutchman/Wagner)at the seaside, and Turandot/Puccini in a former prison camp, or it is chosen as a supplement and perspective to the work; Susannah/Carlisle Floyd) in a hangar, La Boheme/Puccini in a factory ruin, La Traviata/Verdi in an industry hall, Tales of Hoffmann in an old ship’s hall. This in addition to several productions in the main venues in Bergen, such as the Grieghallen Concert Hall, the National Theatre, Logen Theatre, and Håkonshallen.

Grieg Foundation has been an important supporter of this artistic and cultural work, with substantial financial support to the productions during the years after.

For our celebration this year we will thank Grieg Foundation specially for contributing financially to the production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS – an open-air production by Skansedammen in Bergen, and to the main performances in Grieghallen – a double bill performance of I Pagliacci/Leoncavallo and Cavalleria Rusticana/Mascagni.