Fyrsta føroyska operan, Í Óðamansgarði, eftir tónaskaldið Sunleif Rasmussen og rithøvundan Dánial Hoydal, hevur fingið sera jaliga móttøku uttanlands. Eisini føroyskir fjølmiðlar vóru á gosi um framførslurnar.

Tónleikabólkurin Aldubáran tók stig til operuna og framførdi eisini tónleikin á framførslunum.

Her eru nøkur ummæli:

Hilary Finch í The Times 18. oktober 2006:

A nation of 50,000 people, 70,000 sheep, and with no opera house, theatre or concert hall, has created and staged its first opera. Sunleif Rasmussen, the 45-year-old son of a fisherman, and the first conservatory-trained Faroese composer, has written the Faroe Islands’ first native opera, and conjured a work of haunting originality and beauty.

The Madman’s Garden, or Í Ódamansgardi, is played in three continuous acts, and is based on a short story by the Faroese writer William Heinesen, who died in 1991. Rasmussen, with his librettist Dánial Hoydal, has transmuted the tale into a potent fable of adolescence and the search for the self — and has created a challenging music-drama for two singers, two actors, two dancers, and the chamber ensemble of 15 musicians called Aldubáran, who commissioned the work.

The actors (Gunnvá Zachariasen as Stella Christina, and Hans Tórgard as Marselius) control the timing and pace of the drama, while the singers (the Danish soprano Rebecca Persson, and the Icelandic tenor Eyjólfur Eyjólfsson) give voice to their innermost thoughts and feelings in abstracted phrases and sensuous lines of vocalise that go beyond what words can express. Their final duet, at the point where boy and girl have embraced sexuality and selfhood, reveals a new lyrical burgeoning and freedom within the meticulously heard and finely scored writing of Rasmussen.

The dancers play out what both the actors and the singers dare not: at first, in the wild bird-play of childhood innocence, then in an intimate waltzing, in moving counterpoint with the estranged body-language of the actors. Our own Jamie Boylan, and the Swedish Kajsa Wadhia (also choreographer) contribute a highly eloquent strand to a music-drama that, before it travels, will need the focus of stronger production.

Ria Tórgard, directing, is as yet a little tentative: her characterisation of Jordanson, the Madman (is he lunatic, poet, Green Man, psychological projection?) is over-timid — though the bass Björn Blomqvist gave a powerful vocal performance. The mastermind of the evening was the conductor Bernhardur Wilkinson, who held this complex music-drama together with precision and enthusiastic commitment. A DVD, from Da Capo, will be available here in the spring.

Stephan Mösch skrivar í Opern Welt november 2006:

The public at the premiere were enthusiastic. Since all music on the Faroe Islands is new it is not necessary for New Music to step out of a niche. It is heard as a living part of a growing cultural identity. The production is connected with a special series of performances for children between the ages of 14 and 18. They will without doubt recognize themselves in The Madman's Garden and perhaps find their own point of entry to the music of our time.

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In his first opera Rasmussen has further refined [his] highly elaborate style. As with the symphony there is a large role assigned to percussion and electric and acoustic guitar as well as piano and synthesizer complement the 15 person strong orchestra.

The Madman's Garden is based on a wonderfully told short story by one of the Faroe Islands' national poets, William Heinesen. Two children meet at different stages of their development and begin to discover their world, their differences, their dreams, their sexuality. They wonder ever further into the dangerous garden ... [...]

The magical garden is left to our fantasy with Elisa Heinesen's strongly minimalistic stage set.

[...]