# Blomdahl - Aniara



## Dins (Jun 21, 2011)

Today i did something i should have done a long time ago. I finally listened to Aniara. I can honestly say that i was positively surprised. Aniara is widely considered the worlds first science fiction opera, and it is composed by Karl-Birger Blomdahl, and the libretto is based on a "space cycle" by Swedish Poet Harry Martinson, and was adapted by for the opera by Erik Lindegren.

I guess a quick synopsis of the opera is in order since i suspect that this opera is largely unknown outside Scandinavia, or maybe even unknown outside of Sweden.

The opera takes place aboard the space gondolier Aniara, that transports eight thousand emigrants from Earth to Mars since the Earth (called Doris in the opera) is damaged by pollution and nuclear war. Aniara is controlled by a giant electronic brain Mima.

The score of Aniara is varied and makes full use of a range of musical idioms, including jazz, serial writing and an electronic tape. The narrative is sung primarily by Mimaroben, a bass-baritone, who operates the electronic brain, Mima, and by the chorus. In essence the opera (and poem) deal with the relationship between the individual and the group through time.

In the prelude it is worth noting the high flute that plays a morse code: "Aniara SOS Aniara".

During the celebration of Midsummer Aniara has to evade an unknown asteroid, which puts the ship inside a meteor shower that damage the ships controls making it unable to navigate, and the ship wanders out of the solar system . ("We are always en route to infinity," sings the chief engineer Chefone); at the same time, the ships electronic brain reports the destruction of the planet Doris. After that the brain Mima stops working and the ship is adrift in space.

From then on, the opera details the moral and physical collapse of Aniara's 8,000 travellers. The passengers seek to distract themselves, turning first to jitterbugging (led by a party girl named Daisi Doody), later to an atavistic sex cult called "Yurg," involving lascivious dances in a hall of mirrors. The chief engineer dies, and during the celebration of Aniaras 20th year in space is fired in a rescue to become a satellite around the star Rigel.

After 26 years of space travel, the remaining passengers die, aware too late that in the destruction of his home planet man had lost the only paradise he will ever know.
The final scene shows the last night on-board where the blind poetess sings of the joy of death.
"When your love have reached the door of death space is harder and crueller than before"
A light beam sweeps over the dead passengers and the Mime operator Mimaroben prepares for the end. Finally darkness descends over the occupants of the space ship, and the audience in the theatre.

The final bars in the opera the high flute plays Aniara over and over again in Morse code. The music and flute gets softer and softer and finally all that is left is silence.

The only thing i manage to find on youtube is this 25 minute excerpt from the opera. 





For those of you that have a spotify account you can listen to the complete opera there.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Thanks, and welcome to the forum, although I'd say that The Tales of Hoffmann is the world's first science fiction opera. Just because it doesn't involve space travel it doesn't mean it's not science fiction. Olympia is definitely a science fiction character.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I heard _Aniara_ a few years ago, in a couple of mp3 files from a swedish radio broadcast. It was interesting though, unfortunately, I had neither a libretto nor an understanding of swedish, so the drama was lost to me except for a synopsis.


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## Theophrastus (Aug 13, 2011)

Thank you so much for posting this. I know Aniara the poem, but had no idea it had been made into an opera.


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## rsmithor (Jun 30, 2011)

*Aniara Suite*

Awesome... for years I've had The Aniara Suite (New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, with the Gregg Smith singers and added electronic effects by Morton Subotnik) was featured on side 2 of a very rare LP. Side 1, "2001 A Space Odyssey"... with the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. I brought the complete Karl-Birger Blohmdahl Aniara on CD in 1986. Youtube's 25min audio matches the track timing of the Columbia LP "Aniara Suite"... You have my heartfelt thanks...


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I must say I really don´t like the opera at all. Plotwise it must have the most sad ending of all operas death of mankind.
It is after a poetic work by Harry Martinsson who got the Nobel Prize in literature in 1974 he took the critique against this award so bad that he took his life by cutting up his stomach by a pair of scissors and the Swedish Acadamy didn´t dare to give the Nobel Prize in literature to a Swede in 37 years.


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