I’ve never felt this way about anyone and it’s not something I tell everyone

Opera for middle school

Can you forgive the person you love when they have done something stupid to your friend? And what is it like to be forgiven, is everything really cool after that?

“Jag har aldrig känt så här för någon och det är inte en grej jag säger till alla” (“I’ve never felt this way about anyone and it’s not something I tell everyone”) is a newly written opera in Swedish, performed by Man Must Sing and Gageego!. The libretto in the underrated verse meter villanella is about solid friendship, passionate love and the forbidden desire to harm someone else.

Story

Okay, Anna, Kristoffer and Moa are besties and they hang out every night after school, that’s right, Anna and Kristoffer are together, Anna and Moa have known each other since they were little and it’s as cool as can be to hang out all three of them but one evening Anna feels like she wants to hang out with Moa herself so she asks Kristoffer to go to her house, completely reasonable, but Kristoffer gets super hurt and actually quite offended and suddenly feels a completely unreasonable hatred towards Moa, a hatred that has fatal and actually completely unreasonable consequences but oh well, Kristoffer was actually super sad and didn’t think at all about what the consequences would be.

Libretto: Kristian Hallberg
Music: Maria Lithell Flyg
Directed by: Gunilla J Gyllenspetz
Set Design/Costumes: Heidi Saikkonen
Lighting Design: Christofer W Fogelberg
Make-up Design: Linda af Boije Gennäs

On stage

Man Must Sing

Moa – Nina Ewald
Anna – Amanda Flodin
Kristoffer – Karl Peter Eriksson

Gageego!

Flute: Anders Jonhäll
Percussion: Jonas Larsson
Cello: My Hellgren

Another acclaimed collaboration between Man Must Sing and Gageego!, now back for a few school performances. The production has been financed with support from the Swedish Arts Council, the Swedish Writers’ Fund, the Västra Götaland Region, the City of Gothenburg, the Signatur Foundation, the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation, the Ekmanska Donationsfond, and the Sten A Olssons Foundation for Research & Culture.

Photo: Ola Kjelbye