Eatnama váibmu: Opera in Northern Sámi brings nature and language to life on stage

The audience at the Royal Swedish Opera will encounter a visual reinterpretation of Sami tradition and a musical experience with both a countertenor, a large children's choir and elements of joik. The opera is aimed at audiences from the age of 10 and up. Everyone sings in Northern Sámi with translation in Swedish on text machine.

Eatnama váibmu depicts the Sámi creation story with a current theme of living in harmony with nature. The god Ipmil creates the sun, the moon, the people, the reindeer and the magnificent nature. Deep down inside the earth, Ipmil places a beating heart that depicts the passage of time. The two sons of the Sun, Njáveš and Háhčes, who both find love in the Sun Daughter and the Moon Daughter. But then the brothers start arguing – when Háhčes realizes that he cannot hear the heart of the earth, he becomes jealous and bitter, and soon the battle is in full swing. The dramatic events have fatal consequences on the return of Ipmil...

Director Elle Márjá Eira is a Sámi singer, reindeer herder, film director and writer from Norway. She has previously directed, among other things, the film Stöld (Theft), filmed in Sweden and based on a novel by Sámi author Ann-Helen Laestadius.

Librettist (lyricist) Rawdna Carita Eira is a Sámi playwright and writer from Norway. She has worked as a playwright at the Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš - Det samiske nasjonalteatret in Norway. In 2011, she made her debut as an author with the Northern Sámi/Norwegian bilingual novel Ruohta muzetbeallji ruohta/Løp svartøre løp, which was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize.

Composer Britta Byström's music has been played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recently, her chamber operaThe Play of the Night  world premiered at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

The story behind Eatnama váibmu,Youtube

STARRING

IPMIL: Katarina Leoson

MÁNNU (MOON): Jan Jakub Monowid

NJÁVEŠ Klas Hedlund

SUN DAUGHTER: Johanna Rudström

HÁHČES Jens Persson Hertzman

MOON DAUGHTER: Minna Tägil

ARTISTIC TEAM

MUSIC: Britta Byström

TEXT: Rawdna Carita Eira

CONDUCTOR: Anna-Maria Helsing/David Björkman

DIRECTOR: Elle Márjá Eira

SCENOGRAPHY & LIGHT: Markus Granqvist

COSTUME & MASK: Lena Lindgren

DRAMATURG: Katarina Aronsson

CHOREOGRAPHY: Joakim Stephenson

The opera is performed in Northern Sámi with Swedish subtitles on a text machine.