Nadja's Song

Commissioned by Bergen Nasjonale Opera for BNO Unge Stemmer (Young Voices) artist Ingvild Schultze-Florey this new chamber opera gives voice to Nadja, the object of André Breton’s fascination in his 1928 semi-autobiographical surrealist novel Nadja. André Breton’s celebrated surrealist novel Nadja is an undeniably strange book, even an estranged book. Breton’s narrative begins with the question ‘Who am I?’ yet it is only in the chance encounter of a young woman, the eponymous Nadja, that this question finds its own disturbed echo: ‘who am I…would amount to whom I haunt.’ Nadja was not only impoverished but also mentally vulnerable and it was in her troubled state that Breton romanticised an example of authentic surrealism; wilfully misrecognising or distorting her suffering for what could be his art. As abruptly as their lives converged, Breton severed contact, and the relationship was abandoned. Nadja descended into insanity and lived out the rest of her short life in sanatoriums, never to be visited by Breton and never – in the brief narrative of his novel – to be returned to, or reflected upon. She is what haunts the book and, within the book, the presence through which Breton attempts to understand himself. When she becomes most real and most present, Breton recoils and she is made absent. This opera imagines her voice, so conspicuously missing and misinterpreted. A voice that is heard from out of time, out of a struggle with madness, love and neglect and now returning: a restless memory perpetually encountered. The opera was premiered in April 2015 for Bergen Nasjonale Opera, and was subsequently performed at Tête à Tête opera festival in July the same year. This video was recorded in February 2017 at the Royal Northern College of Music. This is an Opera Attic production. For more information see: www.operaattic.com or www.lucyarmstrong.net Composer – Lucy Armstrong Librettist – David Spittle Nadja performed by Ingvild Schultze-Florey Pianist - Liga Korne Director – Derek Martin Recorded by R&W Minty Associates LTD. Sound Recording – William Minty Cinematography – Barney Cunningham AV assistant – Leonie Minty Lighting Designer – Stewart Bartles Set Designer – Anthony Sharpe, based on original design by Joanna Louise Mackenthun