midi.is

Bliss
From 12am to 12pm

Bliss is a twelve-hour long video of the staging of the final aria of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. In a single shot the artist performs along with opera singers, full orchestra, scenery, and rococco costume. The screening will be the premiere of this new piece by Ragnar Kjartansson.

Artist Ragnar Kjartansson presented a twelve-hour long performance at Performa 11 in New York in November last year. The performance, entitled Bliss, repeated the delirious final aria of Mozart’s 1786 opera The Marriage of Figaro and received the biennial’s Malcolm McLaren Award.

A new work by the same title, recoding the full length performance, will be screened on the Main Stage of the National Theatre of Iceland on 21st May. During the 12 hours screening the audience is welcome to wander in and out.

In the final act of the opera, the Count asks the Countess' forgiveness for his arrogant blunders, which she grants, inspiring the entire court to celebrate. Kjartansson’s work replicates the lavishness of traditional opera with a full orchestra, elaborate scenery, and period costumes, and features renowned Icelandic tenor Kristján Jóhannsson and a group of Icelandic opera singers, as well as the artist himself, continuously replaying the two-minute musical, visual, and narrative pinnacle of the opera, approaching a euphoric state for performers and listeners alike. Arrangements and orchestration was conducted by Davíð Þór Jónsson.