HISTORY DOES NOT EXIST

Trond Reinholdtsen / The Norwegian Opra with Oslo Sinfonietta

Saturday 13 September, at 21:00–23:00

150–250 kr

35 % off with ultiMATE

The unravelling of Europe through three videos, 18 musicians and an unexpected theatrical intervention.

Across three large screens—Russia, France, and Germany—The Followers of Ø present an operatic, polyphonic rendering of European history, from the dawn of time to the First World War. In a drama filled with power, utopias, resistance, and "history as the Realization of Spirit", we encounter iconic figures such as Napoleon, Beethoven, Hegel, and Marx, alongside the fearsome "Einzelgänger". Events take an unexpected turn when a group of mysterious anthropologists propel the story into our own time: HISTORY DOES NOT EXIST.

Oslo Sinfonietta, conducted by Christian Eggen, intensify the opera's themes with pseudo-symphonic intermezzi in neoclassical style. Leitmotifs are further developed and the action continues on a subconscious and virtual level—towards spectacular, visionary, and revolutionary heights.

Facts

Trond Reinholdtsen is the founder of The Norwegian Opra, an experimental platform blending opera, theory, performance, and satire.
The Followers of Ø is a radical-utopian sect that seeks to erase the boundary between life and idea. They base their worldview on the Ø films, which they interpret and transform into revolutionary practice in the midst of today’s apocalypse
The performance expands on the plot introduced in The Chosen Ones – a "multi-techno-media-installation-performance-opera-documentary-ritual" presented at Black Box teater during Ultima 2024.