Circus Days and Nights – bringing to life the poetry of Robert Lax, a new genre-defying circus opera by legendary contemporary composer Philip Glass will unite a team of world-class creatives in a collaboration between Swedish contemporary circus company Cirkus Cirkör and Malmö Opera.
The world premiere includes a libretto from Tony award-winning writer and three-time Pulitzer finalist David Henry Hwang and direction from Cirkus Cirkör co-founder and artistic director Tilde Björfors. Faithful to Lax’s poetry and spiritual world view, Circus Days and Nights will take audiences on a spectacular adventure into the world of the circus and the performers who dedicate their lives to this art, capturing a day in their lives as a spiritual ceremony, one which honours the cycle of life and death. The show will be performed on Malmö Opera’s main stage with live music to an intimate socially distanced live audience and streamed worldwide.
Lax’s circus writings, which explore a fasciation with the travelling circus in 1940s America, have long inspired composer Philip Glass as well as director Tilde Björfors, who is renowned for incorporating circus acts into traditional theatre. Along with co-librettist David Henry Hwang, this creative team will bring Lax’s poetry and transcendental vision to the stage, through an innovative and highly-accessible fusion of circus and opera. Meanwhile the cast includes both internationally renowned opera singers and circus artists, including Elin Rombo – Rufus Wainright’s favourite soprano and an international star.
Philip Glass said, “I have had the rights to the poem for about ten years, but I couldn’t write the piece because I hadn’t found my circus. When I saw Tilde’s staging of Satyagraha it struck me: Here’s my circus”
Circus Days and Nights is streaming 29th May to 13th June 2021. Tickets and full details can be found here.
