I am Ulla Winblad
An opera cabaret about the woman whom Bellman praised and defiled
We're going to the Opera again for 10 years. A long tradition continues. This time it's a fantastic production about Ulla Winblad, Bellman's friend.
In the opera cabaret Jag är Ulla Winblad, the 18th century's most legendary and celebrated Stockholm woman gets to play the lead role in her own story. Behind the Folkoperan's anniversary performance is the super trio Klas Östergren, who wrote the libretto, the composer Andrea Tarrodi and the director Nora Nilsson. On stage, the actors Björn Kjellman and Hanna Dorsin meet with the Folkoperan's soloists and orchestra.
Nis an aged Bellman (Björn Kjellman) seeking out ”Ulla” (Hanna Dorsin) to say goodbye and perhaps reconcile, we are thrown back to the days of youth and the brutal 18th century Stockholm. Among bustling taverns and stinking alleys, the young beauty Maria Kristina Kjellström ”Maja-Stina” (Tessan-Maria Lehmussaari) and the young star Carl Michael Bellman (Wiktor Sundqvist) meet.
Under the alter ego "Ulla Winblad", Maja-Stina became a central figure in Stockholm's entertainment scene - she was celebrated both as a goddess and a royal whore as Bellman's popular ballads spread across the country. Nasty rumors haunted her throughout her life, and like the modern-day Marilyn Monroe, she gradually lost control of her identity.
Behind the myth was a real woman from simple circumstances, who defied the conventions of her time. She moved between the city's poor neighborhoods and royal balls and was caught on the street wearing a red silk gown of French cut - something that was not befitting a poor girl. The story of Ulla Winblad contains questions about power, class, female identity and who owns the story of a life - as burning in 18th century Stockholm as in today's influencer culture.
For the third time in Folkoperan's 50-year history, after the successes Marie Antoinette (1998) and Zarah (2007), we are once again bringing a historical portrait of women to the stage through a newly written opera.
The libretto is written by Klas Ostergren, author of modern classics such as Gentlemen, Renegater and most recently Klenoden. With I Am Ulla Winblad he highlights the woman behind the myth in Bellman's epistles – and returns to the neighborhoods around Hornsgatan where the real Maja-Stina and Bellman lived, worked and died.
Composer is Andrea Tarrodi who has been recognized and praised for her music that moves seamlessly between the grandly poetic and the darkly expressive – and which has been played by orchestras around the world. At the Folkoperan she brings together the beauty of opera, the blackness of cabaret and Bellman's immortal ballads and epistles.
Fwhere is the government? Nora Nilsson, who has been acclaimed for her opera debut with Cinderella at the Folkoperan in 2023. In her staging, the mythic Ulla Winblad and the real Maja-Stina meet in a violent, heartbreaking and humorous story. At the intersection of fiction and reality, the grotesque, sumptuous and at the same time bare-bones silhouettes of the 18th century emerge through Julia Przedmojskas scenography, Lena Lindgren costumes and Theresia Frisks mask and wig work.
Register yourself and a possible friend using the form below.
We buy tickets and, as usual, we sit in row 2.
For those who want, we will have a bite to eat at the Tapas Restaurant Madrid, right next to the Folkoperan. If you want to join us, select it on the form.
Tickets cost 435 SEK per person.
They have changed the arrangement so I have already paid, I would be grateful if you swish for your ticket(s). 070 789 10 81 Gerry Askefalk
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