Facts: Claes Fellbom
Born: 1943 in Solna.
Background: Started as a film director, including “Skottet” from 1969. Worked as a director at the Riksteatern 1972–1976. Founded together with Kerstin Nerbe and Krister Fagerström Folkoperan in Stockholm in 1976 and was artistic director there until 2008. Appointed professor of musical drama design at the Opera Academy in 2001.
Has written: The libretto for several all-night operas, including “Marie Antoinette”, “Jeppe” and “Zarah”.
Current with: The performance “Svansjön” which premieres at Artipelag on Värmdö on 22 July. In January, he directs “Aida” at the Wermland Opera.
Claes Fellbom should theoretically have gotten used to premiere nerves by now. But not even a veteran with more than 50 years of professional experience escapes the stress that arises before a world premiere.
– You never get used to that drive. You do not sit down in an armchair with your arms crossed and breathe deeply when it is at its busiest. You rush forward like crazy, he says with a slight sigh.
On July 22, the 79-year-old director’s set of “Svansjön” will meet the premiere audience at the art gallery Artipelag outside Stockholm. It is a different interpretation of the ballet that both goes to the bottom with the core of the story and adapts it to modern times.
– This is terribly much a story that is played out – with dialogue – and that is sung out and that is also moved forward. I do not want to call it dance, because those who perform the work are not dancers and I am not a choreographer, says Claes Fellbom.
“Very vaguely told”
During his career, he has thought a lot about why some works become so popular – such as “The Magic Flute” and “Carmen” in opera and “Swan Lake” in ballet. Tchaikovsky’s music is a masterpiece, Fellbom states, but what about the actual storytelling in the ballet?
– If you stand outside the theater when the audience comes out and ask what this is about, they might answer “yes, it was a swan, that is, and then a prince came and they tried to reach each other, but it did not really work and so came an evil prince “… It is very vaguely told as a ballet.
To make the story clearer, he has turned to the sources and then more specifically to the medieval legend on which “Swan Lake” is based. It describes how a young woman is transformed into a swan by an evil magician and is later freed from the enchantment of a young prince who has fallen in love with her.
“Swan Lake” in Claes Fellbom’s vintage is a hybrid between speech, song and movement – not a pure ballet. Press image. Exploited by men
But in Fellbom’s version, the story takes place on two different timelines, partly during the Middle Ages, partly in modern times where the swan woman is exploited by men who profit from women’s vulnerability.
– I started thinking about how men transform women today. And the clearest transformation, I think, is when you buy a woman from a poor country, turn her into a prostitute, put on her loose nails, false eyelashes and wig – turn her into something she is not, says Claes Fellbom.
The set is made with four people on stage and three musicians in the orchestra (one of the latter is by the way Claes Fellbom’s 16-year-old son Victor Fellbom on keyboard). Only two of the actors sing, but everyone in the ensemble delivers lines and moves expressively on stage.
“You stick out your chin”
– This experiment of doing a ballet without a dancer is very challenging. They will not dance in a way that makes people say “oh, what nice ballet steps they did”, but they will dance with content where they express frustration or joy with their body.
TT: Will the show only be played at Artipelag?
– We start here, but I think we will play it in other places as well. I can imagine that it could be played in say Arvidsjaur as easily as possible because it is so small in its production.