Kongen Af Himmelby - Demo

Kongen Af Himmeby-Demo/Utopiaville-Demo
for Symphony Orchestra (2009).

The Utopiaville-Demo is commissioned by Finn Schumacker for The Odense Symphony Orchestra.

Repertoireoperas occationally have orchestral suites: Bits and pieces of overture, interlude, etc. tied up in a bouquet of 'schönste Tränen'. Contemporary opera usually wither after the first season, so the focus is on gettingpeople to come and have a sniff before it's too late. Consequently it seemed obvious to me to start making orchestral excerpts from my operas that are meant to be played before the premiere (and after, please); I call them'operatrailers' when they're substantial enough to be considered independent works, and 'opera demos' when they're relatively short and more appetizer-ish.

The Utopiaville-Demo is a fast-and-furiouscinemascope 3D THX-demo for my chamber opera 'The King of
Utopiaville' which is sort of a mix between a reversed revolutionary opera (reversed because it's about a revolution
that flops) and a rhythm'n blues theatreconcert.

The opera takes place on the remote tropical island of Honga-Tonga where a mayor form Europe is taking a much needed holiday as far away as possible from his home town Utopiaville. The mayor desperately needs toget away:
He has overstepped his authority blatantly and broken every rule of law he felt like in order to create a modern liberalistic society where sanitation, medicare, hospitals, schools, the police, and all other publicinstitutions are sold to private investors and then leased back by the public - that way noone will ever have to pay taxes because everything finances itself, the mayor says, and in order to keep reality at a safe distance, hedrinks massive amounts of insanely expensive french claret, all in the best interest of the inhabitants of Utopiaville, of course.
Honga Tonga can't get any further away from Waikiki Beach: It looks something like the 1933version of