A Thin Veneer on a Fiery Pool

Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir's chamber opera began in 2021 as a piece about Australian bushfires. It has since been rewritten around fire of a different kind. Magnea J. Matthíasdóttir's new libretto is a long poem spoken by the land itself, and the fire is the one that has been coming up through Reykjanes these past few years. Hallveig Rúnarsdóttir sings it with the ensemble Camerarctica, against film and photographs by Ásdís Thoroddsen. In August it was performed inside the disused storage tanks at Raufarhöfn.