The Minnesota Noices

Lund Choral Festival/ Opera

Free concerts all week (Oct 18-24) and one ticketed professional concert each evening, but, alas, the venues filled quite quickly and I only made it in to one free concert! Next year we know to get the pre-paid pass. Bryant and I did manage to get tickets at the door to hear Det Norske Solistkor and it was magical! My favorite was Ørjan Matre: Orphic Songs, but there aren’t any recordings of it available that I could find.

All Saints Church, aka the red church, hosted the ticketed events, probably because of the amazing acoustics. Photo from last winter!

I thought there was another free concert as part of this morning’s Högmässa High Mass at the cathedral. It was just the regular church choir, but it was an interesting experience. I tried to sit in an inconspicuous location, the back row of the first section, thinking that it would be crowded all the way at the back but I didn’t realize the multiple processions would put me in the center of the event! It was all in Swedish, of course, but I followed along OK without understanding much.

The homily is given from the pulpit to the left so I essentially sat right in the front, even though it seemed like the back when I chose the seat. All of the processing ended right next to where I was sitting. The people at the front turn around to face the center, putting me face-to-face with the far back section, argh! And it lasted for and hour and a half. The choir was a good church choir, not like the professional singers of the other concerts, but nice. And it was fun to hear them in the cathedral.

Our Musical Extravaganza continues…On Friday night we went to Malmö to join with some of the MN to Malmö group (all relocated from Mpls for jobs at IKEA) to see our friend, Dom (Bry knew his partner from Target and now IKEA), perform in Glada änkan The Merry Widow. It was a fabulous show and tons of fun even though we didn’t understand a lot of words. Luckily, the show is more about the music and drama, so it didn’t matter. We also read a synopsis in English and watched a few YouTube clips of a London production. Dom was a star in his roguish role, and, on top of having an incredible voice, he learned this role in SWEDISH while also working his other high energy job. He is setting such a great example of embracing a new language and culture. The kids were both suitably impressed and enjoyed the show, too. Dom arranged for us to meet some other cast members after the show and made us feel like special guests. Another lovely experience.


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