Beyond the Garden returns to Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, Slovenia with Susan Bickley and Katja Konvalinka. The production is by Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre and Opera Povera directed by Rocc and conducted by Simon Dvoršak

Katja Konvalinka (L) and Susan Bickley (R)

Katja Konvalinka writes (translated from Slovenian) Beyond the Garden is a chamber opera by the renowned British composer Stephen McNeff on the libretto by Aoife Mannix, which was premiered in Slovenia in September 2020.

The story of the libretto is inspired by the relationship between Alma Mahler and her daughter Manon Gropius, who died at the age of eighteen. The relationship between the characters is complex, ranging from warmly intimate to coldly formal. The older woman remains unchanged, an immigrant locked in her apartment in the mid-1960s in New York City, while the other woman seems to be getting younger. The story goes back to Easter 1934 and almost fades into memory. Did the older woman just imagine the presence of the younger one all the time ...?

Topics explore memory, loss, and regret. How do we shape our past to fit our life narrative, and what if there is a force that forces us to face another truth? The opera addresses the relationships between older and younger people, parents and children, mothers and daughters, as well as the topic of how to deal with great loss.

With the in-depth nature of the work, the opera narrative changes the tempo between seven scenes and offers opportunities for a variety of singing styles, from solo introspective to rather extroverted scenes.