Guerilla Opera Presents the Premiere of Pedr Solis by Per Bloland

Guerilla Opera Presents the Premiere of Pedr Solis by Per Bloland
Per Bloland

Guerilla Opera presents Pedr Solis, a world premiere opera by Per Bloland, libretto by Paul Schick, and stage direction by Laine Rettmer. Pedr Solis is partially based on «The Tower,» a play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and the life of Norwegian author Pedr Solis in the late 1960s. In 1970, Solis’s novel «Stillaset» spills into his real life in Oslo.

Pedr Solis runs for two weekends: Friday- Saturday, May 15-16, 2015 at 8 p.m., Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 2 p.m., Thursday, May 21-Saturday, May 23, 2015 at 8 p.m., with audience talk-backs on Sunday, May 17 and Friday, May 21 directly after each performance; all performances are in The Zack Box Theater at The Boston Conservatory, located at 8 The Fenway in Boston, MA.

Tickets are currently on sale, and are $15 general admission, $10 senior citizens and free for students with a valid ID (for at-the-door purchases only). Please call The Boston Conservatory Box Office at (617) 912-9222 or visit www.bostonconservatory.edu/tickets for more information. Pedr Solis is 70 minutes in duration, sung in English and scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, countertenor, baritone, violin, clarinet, saxophone, percussion, and electronics.

Two frames interfused: the novel “Stillaset,” authored by Pedr Solis in the late 1960s, and the spilling of that novel into Solis’s life in Oslo, 1970. A figure is written into a structure located in a timeless mythic landscape somewhere in the north of Norway. He explores its modernist architecture, but increasingly the irrational encroaches, and order disintegrates. Solis’s novel character is released from captivity and undertakes to overthrow the author and usurp his role in Oslo. The revolution succeeds, but Edda forces incipient at the borders burst in to subsume the story. The Norwegian god Loki soliloquies.

The world premiere production of Pedr Solis features cast members: mezzo-soprano Carrie Cheron, baritone Brian Church, soprano Aliana de la Guardia (general manager), and countertenor Douglas Dodson. The instrumental ensemble features violinist Gabriela Diaz, clarinetist Amy Advocat, saxophonist Kent O’Doherty and percussionist Mike Williams (artistic director). Guerilla Opera’s creative team features: composer Per Bloland, librettist Paul Schick, stage director Laine Rettmer, scenic designer Julia Noulin-Merat (Director of Design and Production), lighting designer Daniel Chapman, and costume designer Neil Fortin.