Breaking the Waves

Composer: Missy Mazzoli
Librettist: Royce Vavrek

Tours by decade

2010s - 1 tour

2019 - Scottish Opera: Fully Staged with Orchestra

Tours by location

Scotland, UK - 1 entry

2019 - Scottish Opera: Edinburgh

Music

Missy Mazzoli

Text

Royce Vavrek

Source

Film Breaking the Waves (1996) directed by Lars von Trier.

Premieres

First Performance: Philadelphia (Perelman Theatre), 22 September 2016.

First Performance in UK: Edinburgh (King's Theatre), 21 August 2019.

Scottish Opera premiere: as above, 21 August 2019.

Background

Lars von Trier's film was controversial as well as highly praised. It gives a rather bleak, even brutal, impression of life in the remote Scottish highlands.

Principal characters

Bess McNeill (soprano)

Jan Nyman, her husband (baritone)

Dodo McNeill, her sister (mezzo-soprano)

Mother (soprano)

Dr Richardson (tenor)

Summary

In a strict Calvinist community in the north of Scotland (specified as the Isle of Skye), Bess McNeill marries the man she loves, a Norwegian rig worker, Jan Nyman. Bess's prayers for his return from working off-shore are cruelly answered when he is incapacitated in an accident.

Opera Scotland