Schönberg Series: OPUS MIRUM

Schönberg Series. OPUS MIRUM No. 19
19 November 2026 at 19:00
Eesti Nüüdismuusika Keskus (Pühavaimu 9, Tallinn)

PROGRAMME

Sohrab Uduman (1962), Cassandra for voice and phonogram (1992)
Hans-Gunter Lock (1974), Cassandra’s Echo for phonogram (2010)
Sven Sosnitski (1987), Song of a Distant Land for soprano and electronics (2015; text by Lord Byron)

OPUS MIRUM is a project initiated in 2010 by soprano Kai Kallastu: “Works with electronics are interesting because they create a large space, as if ‘filled’ with sounds. This is music of the world in the broadest sense, using both noise sounds and the human voice at its microscopic limits.”

The concert programme, conjuring apocalyptic visions of the future, explores human loneliness, alienation and the world’s decline. The myth of Cassandra is a vivid example of a woman’s fall down the social ladder and the disintegration of her identity. Daughter of Priam, King of Troy, and loved by the god Apollo, she becomes Agamemnon’s prize of war: an unwilling immigrant, forced to foretell disaster and doom to deaf ears, and ultimately murdered.

Sohrab Uduman’s Cassandra portrays Cassandra as a harbinger of misfortune hated by her people, who, in dire circumstances, seems to lose her connection with the outside world and even with herself as she carries out her mission—or rather, her programme.

Hans-Gunter Lock composed the tape piece Cassandra’s Echo at the request of Pärnu Opera for Suveaaria 2010, as an interlude between Sohrab Uduman’s Cassandra and Jürg Wüttenbach’s Encore!.

Sven Sosnitski’s Song of a Distant Land is based mainly on the poem Darkness by the English poet Lord Byron. In the distant future, our dying sun has made life on Earth impossible. The last person looks up into the emptiness to speak the final words.

Soprano Kai Kallastu earned a master’s degree in classical singing at Helsinki Metropolia University in Finland and has attended numerous masterclasses. She has performed as a chamber singer, soloist in large-scale works and music-theatre artist with various ensembles in several countries. Her repertoire ranges from Renaissance music to contemporary works, and she has premiered experimental vocal works by several composers. She has an intensive creative partnership with her husband, composer and conductor Andrus Kallastu, with whom she has performed dozens of vocal programmes. www.kallastu.ee

Composer and conductor Andrus Kallastu studied at Tallinn Conservatory (now the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) and the Sibelius Academy, and has worked as a freelance musician since 2000. Several of Kallastu’s works reflect his interest in combining music with different art forms and in performance. His work as a performer and artistic director of projects is often connected with music theatre. Alongside traditional music-theatre activity, his aim is to develop specific areas of music theatre: mystery-like sacred composition and the visualised concert. www.kallastu.ee

PARTNERS
Eesti Arnold Schönbergi Ühing
OPUS MIRUM
Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Tallinn University Baltic Film, Media and Arts School
Pärnu Opera
Autorfest
Eesti Nüüdismuusika Keskus
Music City Tallinn
Cultural Endowment of Estonia
City of Pärnu

Tickets
Standard ticket: €20.00
Discount ticket (dependants and pensioners): €10.00
Student ticket (school and university students): €5.00

https://opusmirum.ee/
https://schoenberg.ee/