Usus Productions - The Indian Queen

This is Ursus’ fourth major opera production and as with the previous three, it is produced using multiple rooms and facilities at Wrap.

For this production the company rented Wrap’s Big Project Room, Wood and Metal Workshop, and Studio A (in the AV Lab) for several weeks. Additionally they rented Studio B in the AV Lab for periods when they needed it for particularly demanding recording sessions. The “B” in Studio B stands for (sometimes misleadingly) Big, and this is a very large live room, used for concerts events, large-scale music rehearsals and recordings. 

Studio A is a state-of-the-art music studio that allowed Sound Designer, Torolf Thuestad, not only to record several sessions with the many musicians who were involved in the project, but further to develop the overall sound design and composition in collaboration with Ursus’ core team.

Wrap gave Ursus the possibility to contain the entirety of their ambitious interdisciplinary workflow within the same building, including set design/construction, costume design/production, lighting design (thanks to newly expanded infrastructure), sound design with recording and post-production, rehearsals and experimentation in the Big Project Room. The canteen and kitchen also served as an invaluable resource, as the company were able to hire in people to cook meals on many of the busiest days, and were enabled to work gruelling long hours in the knowledge that they had all their needs met.

In a Q and A after the premier, Ursus agreed that they were able to make and commit to decisions later in their creative process now than in earlier productions. This gave them more room to experiment with alternative scenarios. It was later confirmed that this was in no small part due to new and improved resourc

es at Wrap such as in the AV Lab.

Another recent theatre production finalized at Wrap is Stankelbeinmusikk by Tabula Rasa. This is a musical theatre piece for all ages, featuring 6 different insects with fantastic costumes by Johanna Dahlbäck, music by Glenn Erik Haugland and words by Hilde Trætteberg Serkland. It is performed by the vocalists of Tabula Rasa, Rikke Lina Sorell Matthiesen, Sigrun Jørdre, Zsuzsa Zseni, Tord Kalvenes, Arild Rohde and Jakub Niedziela, together with celist Carmen Bóveda, with choreography by Caroline Eckly, and dramaturgy by Ingrid Askvik.

Other noteworthy projects to take place this autumn/winter are:

A two-week song-writing residency where the experimental metal trio, YAWN, developed new material for their planed second album.

Recording of drums and guitar for the dance film Nacht [feminine] by Malin Nøss Vangsnes and Maximilian Großmann, with music composed by Owen Weaver and performed by Owen Weaver (drums/percussion) and Leo Preston (guitar).

Various “pre-production” residencies for imminent music tours with bands/ensembles such as Vestnorsk Jazzensemble, Bergen Big Band, and Modal Trafikk.

Our own program this autumn has included a new edition of Sonisk Selskap led by Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen, under the title That All Sounds Very Important, and the launch of Wrap Satellite, a project that will use Kunstbussen to bring performances, concerts and projects from Wrap (and our magical Bergen-based milieu) to collaborating venues and events organisers around the whole of Vestland county. The first tour with Wrap Satellite went to Gulen, where we were proud to take part in the official opening of Kjelbju-låven, a new venue for various artistic activities run by Charlotte Linn Pedersen og Tara Catherall. For this opening event, we pieced together a unique film consisting of historical photos and excerpts from the film Stein på Stein by Kurt Helge Pedersen. This was shown together with live music by Hilde Annine Hasselberg as part of our Audioglimt series.

As Kjelbju-låven is still in the early stages of becoming established, we were very happy to bring our unique, tiered seating designed by visual artists Reinhard Haverkamp. This was a most welcome contribution, as all seats were easily filled and the event was packed with people from Bergen and Gulen. The event also consisted of a warm meal cooked by Dave Catherall, and an exhibition of photographs from Bergen and Kjelbju, by Tara Catherall and Fabian Øverjordet.