Charles Darwin's theory of evolution galvanized science in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is seriously inspiring the arts in the 21st. Next up: The Knife's Darwin-inspired opera, Tomorrow, In a Year.
A challenging 90-minute epic based on Darwin's On the Origin of Species, the opera merges found Amazonian sounds, electronic atmospherics and swirling vocals from Danish mezzo-soprano Kristina Wahlin and Swedish pop singer Jonathan Johansson. Swedish electro-pop duo The Knife composed the piece with Berlin-based musicians Matthew Sims and Janine Rostron.
In the exclusive video above, The Knife's Olof and Karin Dreijer conduct an illuminating round-table discussion with Rostron and Sims (who are more famously known as Planningtorock and Mt. Sims, respectively) on the making of Tomorrow, In a Year.
Tomorrow, In a Year was commissioned in 2008 by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera premiered in Copenhagen last September, and The Knife released the score digitally in January. On Monday, the piece based on Darwin's spiral of life gets the double-disc CD treatment.
Taken together with Jon Amiel's film Creation, finally released stateside in January, it is clear that Darwin has become a touchstone for the arts in our still-new millennium.
Deal with it, intelligent designers.
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