Britisk skryt av Røst

Querini-operaen på Røst sist helg har vakt begeistring lokalt, men også internasjonalt. Britiske Financial Times var til stede, og de likte det de så og hørte. Journalisten skryter uhemmet av forestillingen og av Røst: 

The chorus includes real-life fishermen and traders alongside the village priest, the doctor and a large proportion of Røst’s children, who perform as strikingly blonde Venetians and as their own Røst forebears. Their music is simple without being simplistic, and they sing it with polish and infectious passion.

Querini came from one of the world’s richest cities to one of its most humble islands, where he was received with generosity and genuine goodness. The experience affected him profoundly: he had, he wrote, found the first circle of paradise on the archipelago. Much has changed since then – Norway is now one of the world’s richest nations, in terms of GDP per capita – but not, it seems, the uncomplicated warmth of the people of Røst, as manifested in the utterly Arcadian feel of this community arts project.

Pettersen hopes that Querini’s next stop will be Venice, in the corner of the city where Querini’s ship was built. She deserves to succeed. This must be the most moving work of music theatre ever to be written about dried fish.