''Notorious'' is an opera in five acts and 22 scenes by

Hans Gefors Hans Gefors (born 8 December 1952 in Stockholm) is a Swedish composer. He has lived in Lund since the mid-1990s. Selected works * ''La boîte chinoise'', for guitar (1975) * ''Poeten och glasmästaren'', chamber opera (1979, libretto: Lars Forsse ...

based on a Swedish-language libretto from after

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's 1946 film ''Notorious''. The opera premiered at Göteborg Opera in September 2015 with

Nina Stemme Nina Maria Stemme (born Nina Maria Thöldte on 11 May 1963) is a Swedish dramatic soprano opera singer. Stemme "is regarded by today's opera fans as our era's greatest Wagnerian soprano". In 2010, Michael Kimmelman wrote of one of Stemme's perf ...

in the leading role which had been played in the film by fellow Swede

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...

. Gefors had previously composed full-length stage works for the Swedish Royal Opera (''Christina'', 1986), for

Wiesbaden Opera The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden ('Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden') is a German theatre located in Wiesbaden, in the Bundesland (Germany), German state Hesse. The company produces operas, Play (theatre), plays, ballets, Musical theatre, mus ...

(''Der Park'', 1992), and for the centenary of the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...

at the Salle Favart in Paris (''

Clara Clara may refer to: Organizations * CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization * Clara.Net, a European ISP * Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium People * Clara (given name), a feminine giv ...

'', 1998).

Background

The work was commissioned from Gefors in 2009 and permission was sought from Disney / Buena Vista who held the rights to the story. When these were obtained Kerstin Perski (who had worked with Gefors on ''Vargen kommer'' (''The wolf is coming'', for Malmö in 1997) began work on the libretto and Stemme was booked for the leading role. The opera is set in Brazil and generally follows the scenario of the film faithfully although the script is of necessity much reduced. However the libretto respects traditions of opera with many ariosos, ensembles and choruses apt for singing. The music is characterized by "moments of lushness �� ear-catching polytonalities and extraordinary susurrating tonal clusters for the chorus",Thompson, Warwick. "Report from Sweden." ''

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

'', December 2015, Vol. 66, No. 12, p. 1573 ff. along with rhythms and suggestions of the samba woven into Gluckist memories which reflect the partly South American setting. Among the musical highlights has been noted an aria for Alicia at the end of Act III in which she expresses her doubts about the intrigue before accepting the plan; another for the heroine where she vents her rage "worthy of Isolde" and a scene at a performance of Gluck's ''

Orfeo ed Euridice ' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on Orpheus, the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the ''azione teatrale'', mea ...

'' at the opera house in Rio de Janeiro where Devlin and Alicia sing a duet with chorus.Dupuy, Emmanuel. "Enchaînés par le chant – ''Notorious'' de Gefors, Göteborg, Opera, 27 septembre". '' Diapason'', No. 640, November 2015, p. 60 f. The opera was broadcast on Sweden's classical radio station P2.''Notorious'' av Hans Gefors
via ''Opera i P2'', accessed 23 December 2015.

Roles

Synopsis

The story is an ill-fated love affair with a background of espionage. Set during the Second World War, Alicia Hauser, a free-living daughter of a Nazi, is engaged by American Secret Services to infiltrate a group of émigré German scientists in Brazil who are working on creating a powerful and destructive weapon. Recruited by Devlin with whom she is attracted, she ends up marrying one of the scientists, Alex.

References

{{reflist Compositions by Hans Gefors 2015 operas Swedish-language operas Operas based on films Operas Operas set in Brazil