Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain Jonathan von Schwanenflügel, Signe Sneh Durholm, Elenor Wiman, Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Athelas Sinfonietta & Eirik Haukaas Ødegaard

• Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour (b. 1974): The Doll Behind the Curtain:
• 1 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain: Opening 01:02
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 1:
• 2 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 1: What Is It She Wants to Tell Me? 01:57
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 2:
• 3 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 2: One of the Pleasures of Le Havre 17:52
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 3:
• 4 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 3: Giselle! You've Sat There for an Hour 11:09
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 4:
• 5 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act I, Scene 4: No Woman I Have Ever Seen 03:29
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 1:
• 6 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 1: Mehrdad, I Call you Beloved 07:25
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 2:
• 7 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 2: Now It Is Winter 00:51
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 3:
• 8 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 3: Bita, My Dear, Come 04:14
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 4:
• 9 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 4: Bita 00:55
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 5:
• 10 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 5: Ay, This Weather 06:42
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 6:
• 11 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 6: Is This My Rival? 02:52
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 7:
• 12 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 7: Every City Has Its Secrets 01:25
• The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 8:
• 13 Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain, Act II, Scene 8: Another Night in the Vortex 08:14
• Total Runtime 01:08:07

Info for Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain

Based on the short story by the same name by Sadeq Hedayat (1903–51), Iran’s first modernist writer, The Doll behind the Curtain is an opera from Iranian-Danish composer Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour and librettist Dominic Power. It explores themes of alienation, the mysteries of human sexuality and the dissonance, both musical and cultural, between East and West and tradition and modernity. Set in Le Havre and Tehran during the 1930s, the opera tells the story of Mehrdad, a shy Iranian student studying in the French harbour city. After having found a mannequin in a junk shop, he becomes obsessed with its flawless and unchanging beauty and brings it back home to Tehran. His infatuation and inner conflict cause him to destroy his own life and that of his fiancée Bita, struggling to compete with her silent rival. An original and challenging work of musical theatre, The Doll behind the Curtain was composed in 2015 and is Tafreshipour’s first opera as well as the first Iranian opera with an English libretto. It was premièred in London in 2015 and is here heard in a recording by the team that also performed it at the Royal Danish Opera in 2020.

Jonathan von Schwanenflügel, tenor
Per Bach Nissen, bass
Signe Sneh Durholm, soprano
Elenor Wiman, mezzo-soprano
Thomas Storm, baritone
Maria Dreisig, soprano
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, bass-baritone
Athelas Sinfonietta
Eirik Haukaas Ødegaard, conductor

Eirik Haukaas Ødegaard
s an up-and-coming conductor from Norway. He studied conducting and percussion at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he received his bachelors and masters under Ole Kristian Ruud. Currently, Eirik is taking a post-graduate degree at the Royal Danish Academy of music under Giordano Bellincampi.

Eirik made his first professional appearance conducting the world premiere of a chamber opera by Jexper Holmen at the 2019 Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival. He is also a participant in the new norwegian talent-development programme for conductors, "Dirigentforum", and has attended masterclasses with renowned conductors and pedagogues such as Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Vasily Petrenko, Johannes Schlaefli, Mark Stringer and Atso Almila.

As a part of his education, Eirik has conducted several professional orchestras and wind bands in performance, such as Århus Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, South Denmark Philharmonic, Royal Norwegian Navy Band, Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Athelas Sinfonietta
has long been established as a leading Danish Chamber ensemble and the nation’s foremost new music ensemble. Concert series, participation in operas and festivals, international tours, numerous CD recordings and imaginative concert programming has made Athelas a remarkable institution.

Nevertheless Athelas is changing, having recently established a new artistic triumvirate leadership, including two of Denmark’s youngest and most profiled composers. Their ambition is to direct the repertoire towards a sharper, contemporary profile – and to work more radically with the concert formats.

One focus will be the “through-composed” concerts where videos, happenings and staging effects bind the music pieces together to one artistic event.

Another focus will be to open up the concerts by rethinking them as social events that embraces and includes the audience. As artistic co-director Christian Winther Christensen says: “We all know that when we go out for a concert it’s not only because we want to hear particular pieces of music. We also go to socialize, have a good time, enjoy ourselves, and to experience an event!”

Booklet for Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain