(2023)
Composer Simon Steen-Andersen
Instrumentation 2.2.2.2/2.2.3.0/perc,kbd,regal/8.6.5.3.2 + 6 singers, onstage ensemble, video, electronics
Category Music Drama and Stage Music
Publication year 2023
Catalogue no. D.0060
Duration 135 minutes
After a traditionally set dinner-scene, we follow Don Giovanni to hell.
Part opera fiction, following Mozart’s character as he dives into what turns out to be the underworld of opera, part coma dream, taking place inside the mind of the opera singer after he hit his head against the trap door.
In opera-hell we traverse through 400 years of opera history guided by the opera-devil, Polistopheles, comprised by all the historic Mephistopheleses, Plutos and devils in company of all the daemons, damned, evil and otherwise hell-bound characters of the repertoire. We also traverse through the hidden and dark parts of the opera house through video excursions, using images of the off-stage areas as virtual stage-sets.
In opera-hell the damned and evil characters are exposed to contrapasso a.k.a. poetic justice (with greetings to Dante), i.e. punishments based on the crimes they committed in their operas. These punishments are always musical in nature and form both entertainment for the natives as well as auditions and rehearsals for a grand show that the opera-devil is working to set up as he also takes the roles of dictatorial conductor and stage director.
The original music will (mostly) be recognisable, but, twisted through changes in register, style, context and function, guided by the question: How could this music sound and function in hell or in a dream of hell for a human being of today?
An evening of twisted classics, operatic meta, broken clichés, cinematic post-apocalypse, infernal misfits, up-side-down arias, gender-bending, waterboarding, musical punishment, hampered singing, resonating stage-elements, mechanical contraptions, grinding stage-mechanics, light and smoke. In other words a comedy!
All categories Solo 2-6 Instruments 7+ Instruments Orchestra Music Drama and Stage Music Other
Next to Beside Besides #6b
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified viola solo
Drownwords
2003 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
12 minutes
Guitar and performer
TRIO
2019 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Orchestra
48:30 minutes
Symphony orchestra, big band, and choir
De Profundis (version for Bass Clarinet)
2000 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
12 minutes
Bass clarinet soloist, also playing percussion
Asthma
2017 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
22 minutes
Accordion & video
Inszenierte Nacht
2013 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Music Drama and Stage Music
55 minutes
pno, vlc, trb, trp(+singing), 2 perc, gui
Buenos Aires
2014 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Music Drama and Stage Music
85 minutes
5 singers (SATBB), perc, cl, vlc, gui
Next to Beside Besides #6
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified violin solo
Next to Beside Besides #2
2005 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
(Any) saxophone solo, amplified
Next to Beside Besides #11
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified vibraphone solo
Next to Beside Besides #12
2008 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified accordion solo
Next to Beside Besides #10
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Miniature video camera solo
Next to Beside Besides #9
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
Amplified double bass solo
Next to Beside Besides #7
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified piano solo with whammy pedal
Next to Beside Besides #5
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified piccolo solo
Next to Beside Besides #13
2008 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified guitar solo
Next to Beside Besides #8
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified guitar solo
Next to Beside Besides #3
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified accordion solo
Next to Beside Besides #1
2005 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
Amplified double bass solo
Im Rauschen
2012 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
10 minutes
Picc, fl (playable by non-flutist), b cl, with intra-instrumental playback
Next to Beside Besides #4
2006 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Amplified percussion solo
“if this then that and now what”
2016 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Music Drama and Stage Music
105 minutes
4 actors, 2 trombones, 4 percussionists, and 12 strings
Korpus
2015 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
11:30 minutes
7-8 players on 3 Partch instruments
Beside Besides
2003 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
4 minutes
Cello solo
Study for Alto Saxophone and Percussion
1998 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
7:30 minutes
Alto saxophone & percussion
Pretty Sound
2008 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
7:30 minutes
Amplified piano solo
Etude No.1
1999 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
1 minutes
Piano Solo
Difficulties Putting it Into Practice (for two musicians)
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
12 minutes
2 amplified musicians
Difficulties Putting it Into Practice (for four musicians)
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
12 minutes
4 amplified musicians
Mono
2014 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
9 minutes
Male vocal, keyboard, electronics
Piano Concerto
2014 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Orchestra
25 minutes
Pno solo + 3.3.3.3/4.3.3.1/4perc/arpa/archi/live-elec/video
Studies for String Instrument #1, 2, 3
2011 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
String instruments
String Quartet no. 2
2012 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
14 minutes
String quartet with prepared and amplified bows
Black Box Music
2012 • Simon Steen-Andersen
7+ Instruments
32 minutes
Black box + Bar sax, bass cl, bsn, horn, trp, trb, pno, 3 perc, hp, el-gui, vla, vlc, cb
in-side-out-side-in...
2001 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
10 minutes
Guitar
Besides
2003 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
13 minutes
Amplified piano, picc fl and vl + damped string trio
Study for String Instrument #3
2011 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
5 minutes
Cello and video
Study for String Instrument #1
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
7 minutes
String instrument(s) ad lib.
Study for String Instrument #2
2009 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
6 minutes
String instrument(s) ad lib. and whammy pedal
Split Point
2002 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
12 minutes
Solo percussion
History of my Instrument
2011 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
9 minutes
Harp and video playback
Beloved Brother
2008 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
7 minutes
Guitar
On And Off And To And Fro
2008 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
15 minutes
Ssax, vibr, cb, 3 players with megaphones
String Quartet
1999 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
10 minutes
String quartet
Run Time Error
2009 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Other
Video installation / site-specific performance
De Profundis
2000 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
12 minutes
Soprano saxophone soloist, also playing percussion
Spin-Off
2002 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
3 minutes
S-sax, trp, acc, cb
Rerendered
2004 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Solo
10 minutes
Piano solo with two assistants
Amid
2004 • Simon Steen-Andersen
7+ Instruments
10 minutes
fl, cl, perc, pno, gui, vl, vlc
Double Up
2010 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Orchestra
18 minutes
2.2.2.2/2.2.2.0/3 perc/arpa/sampler/archi
In spite of, and maybe even therefore
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
2-6 Instruments
9 minutes
Fl, cl, cbsn, cor, perc, pno, cb
Chambered Music
2007 • Simon Steen-Andersen
7+ Instruments
11 minutes
Trb offstage + 1.0.1.0/1.1(picc).0.0/2perc/keyb(sampler)/1.1.1.1.1
Praesens
2001 • Simon Steen-Andersen
7+ Instruments
16:30 minutes
1.0.1.0/1.1.1.0/3 perc/pno/1.1.1.1.1
Ouvertures
2010 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Orchestra
15 minutes
Guzheng solo + 0.2.3.3/4.3.3.0/3 perc/live-electronics (sampler-keyboard)/archi
Amongst
2005 • Simon Steen-Andersen
Orchestra
33 minutes
Amplified guitar solo + 3.0.3.0/4.3.3.0/3perc/pno/archi(as large as possible)