Under the Same Star

The Icelandic Opera, the national company established by law in 2025 as part of the National Theatre, opens with an evening of arias that travels round the country before it reaches Reykjavík. The title plays on a coincidence: in the year Jónas Hallgrímsson wrote his poem Ástarstjarna yfir Hraundranga, of the love star over Hraundrangi, Wagner wrote an aria to the evening star. The story of opera is told from the courts of Italy to Iceland, sung by the company's four newly engaged singers, Kristín Einarsdóttir Mäntylä, Hildigunnur Einarsdóttir, Gunnar Björn Jónsson and Kristján Jóhannesson, while two actors of the National Theatre, Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir and Örn Árnason, lead the audience through it. Ólafur Egill Egilsson wrote and directs it, and it runs about two hours with one interval. In Skálholt Cathedral, in partnership with Sinfóníuhljómsveit Suðurlands, the orchestra plays with Kammerkór Norðurlands, Skálholtskórinn and Kammerkór Rangæinga under Guðmundur Óli Gunnarsson, and Gunnlaugur Bjarnason is the guest singer.