5 things you need to know

1. A towering figure of 20th-Century theatre and cinema

The winner of four Academy Awards, an all-time favourite of film lovers and, in the director’s cut (312 minutes), one of the longest films ever released: Fanny and Alexander is all of the above, for sure, but first and foremost, it is the culmination of one of the most impressive and versatile œuvres of the twentieth century. Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) made almost sixty films for cinema and television and 172 theatre productions (including a couple of operas). He also produced some 300 manuscripts, often of exceptional literary quality. Regardless of the medium he was working in, he fearlessly probed the psychological depths of his characters, who often, like their creator, struggled with existential questions, interpersonal relationships and ruthless self-awareness.

The at times sombre introspection of such acclaimed films as The Seventh Seal, Persona and Cries and Whispers gives way to something else in Fanny and Alexander. ‘I want to depict, finally, the joy that I carry within me in spite of everything, and which I so seldom and so feebly have given attention to in my work’, Bergman observed. ‘To be able to express the power of action, decisiveness, the vitality, and the kindness. Yes, for once, that would not be a bad idea.’ Bergman did just that with a film that in many ways surpasses all his previous ones.

Fanny and Alexander is the coming-of-age story of the young Alexander Ekdahl and his sister Fanny, who grow up in the warm embrace of a theatrical family from the upper-middle-class in the early twentieth century. From the opening scenes – a Christmas party etched in every Swede’s memory –, he pulls out all the stops with sumptuous sets and costumes, colourful shots and strong character direction. It makes the contrast with what follows all the harsher. For when the children’s father Oscar dies unexpectedly during a performance of Hamlet, they soon follow their mother Emilie into the world of her new husband, the authoritarian bishop Edvard Vergérus, a world that is as cold as it is devoid of love. Vergérus is keen to discipline them and to tame Alexander’s vivid imagination, by force if necessary …

2. From the big screen to the opera stage

Years before the film was shot, Ingmar Bergman Jr, one of the film-maker’s nine children, had the opportunity to meet the Ekdahls. In the summer of 1979, while spending the holiday at one of his father’s houses on the island of Fårö, he unexpectedly got to read the first printed version of the script of Fanny and Alexander. Over the course of an unforgettable week, he spent the mornings reading the work before discussing his impressions with Ingmar Sr at lunchtime. The musicality of the text struck him at once, and on a dramatic, philosophical and theatrical level too, the text contained everything a composer could hope to find in a libretto. Yet the idea of an opera adaptation wouldn’t take concrete form until decades later, after Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson introduced him to one of today’s most prominent librettists, Royce Vavrek. Convinced that his father would have embraced the opera project Fanny and Alexander, he gave the team not only his trust but also unlimited access to the original script, workbooks and notes, some still unpublished.

With Ivo Van Hove, this new production can count on a director who is intimately familiar with Bergman’s œuvre, as can be seen from his stage adaptations of Scenes from a Marriage (2005), Cries and Whispers (2009) and the diptych After the Rehearsal / Persona (2012). Like the film-maker, Van Hove recognized in the narrative material of Fanny and Alexander the possibilities and even the need for a new aesthetic approach, which he elaborated with his regular scenographer, Jan Versweyveld, and costume designer An D’Huys: ‘For each film, Bergman found a new narrative style that suited that specific story. It is the same exercise that my team and I go through with every performance: what you are going to tell is one thing, but how you are going to tell it is another. For me, this opera is centred on Alexander’s coming of age. From the traditional Christmas table to his father’s theatre, from the ascetic milieu of the bishop to the magical universe of the Jewish family friend Ishmael: the boy goes on a voyage of discovery through different, overlapping worlds, a journey during which he learns to make his own choices.’

3. An immersive sound experience

There can be no new opera without music, of course, but how do you provide a now opulent, now utterly serene film like Fanny and Alexander with sound? Composer Mikael Karlsson found the answer in a combination of authentic opera voices and a symphonic composition with a technological surplus. Indeed, his richly orchestrated score, conducted by Ariane Matiakh, includes sophisticated electronic soundscapes rarely used in opera before. Via speakers located on the parterre, the balconies and even in the dome, he has worked with La Monnaie’s Sound and Audiovisual team to develop an immersive surround system that draws the audience into Alexander’s experiences. ‘That system not only provides a unique 360° theatre experience. The deep vibrations caused by the subwoofers will also literally make your whole body quiver. The singers, subtly amplified so as not to unsettle the delicate balance, can also engage in a far more intimate narrative style than is the case in a classical opera. As a spectator, you become more sensitive to the emotions shown on stage, and you gradually become part of it, as it were’, Karlsson explains.

4. A cast of stars

Among the cast of Fanny and Alexander are not only rising stars of the new generation such as Peter Tantsits (Oscar) and Sasha Cooke (Emilie), but also genuine opera royalty. The role of Bishop Edvard Vergérus is indeed performed by Thomas Hampson. The most celebrated American baritone of this century has more than eighty roles and a hundred recordings to his credit, not to mention countless live performances that have moved the hearts of tens of thousands of spectators worldwide. Today, he is finally making his opera debut at La Monnaie. In this production, he forms a diabolical duo with a singer who needs no introduction either, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, a tireless musical explorer and living legend. As a Swede, she could not be missing from this opera, of course. She plays Justina, the stern maid. The title roles of Fanny and Alexander have been reserved for up-and-coming talent from our Children’s and Youth Choirs: Sarah Dewez, Lucie Penninck and Jay Weiner.

5. More Bergman in Brussels!

Anyone wishing to dive deeper into Bergman’s œuvre in parallel with Fanny and Alexander can do so without leaving our capital this autumn. Just as Bergman created art across several genres, a number of Brussels cultural houses and cinemas are joining forces to propose a genuine Ingmar Bergman cycle. From 21 November you can enjoy Ivo Van Hove’s diptych After the Rehearsal / Persona at the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, and on 7 December at Cinema Galeries you can watch Fanny and Alexander. Cinéma Palace and the RITCS will also be showing Bergman films, one of which will be personally introduced by Ingmar Bergman Jr. Discover the full programme here!