Snehvides Spejl - Operatrailer

Composer's Program Note

Repertoire operas occationally have orchestral suites: Bits and pieces of overture, interlude, etc. tied up
in a bouquet of 'schönste Tränen'. Contemporary operausually wither after the first season, so the focus
is on getting people to come and have a sniff before it's too late. Consequently it seemed obvious to me
to start making orchestral excerpts from my operas that aremeant to be played before the premiere (and
after, please); I call them 'opera trailers' when they're substantial enough to be considered independent works, and 'opera demos' when they're relatively short andmoreappetizer-ish.

SNOW WHITE'S MIRROR is a full scale two act dramatic opera written for the Danish National Opera. The opera is a modern re-telling for grown-ups of the brothers Grimm's fairy tale: Snow White is aself-centered teenage narcissist and the villain of the opera; she ends up loosing everyone but herself, either because she kills them, or because they decide they can't stand being around her anymore. But apparently she's o.k.with that...
The music is intended for a large audience: it's basically pop music done with all the craftmanship of a
classical composer who's equally at home with large scale symphonic form, avantgarde technique,
opera singing - and modern pop.

The Trailer is in three movements. It contains three sections of the opera; the prelude, an interlude close to the beginning of the second act, and the final scene but one.It's a gloomy sort of trailer, starting out in grand title sequence style, moving on to a decidedly odd piece where Snow White find her way to the dwarfs (who're creepy junkies doing pornography to get money to buy dope), andending in kind of an eerie rejection mood: Everyone still alive walks out on Snow White, singing 'skin as white as snow, hands red with blood, soul as black as ivory'.
(NM 2010)