love is a rebellious bird
a chamber opera in 5 scenes
_Finnish National Opera_ Sugar Factory_ 2026_
you're gonna think about me when you're dying
du wirst an mich denken wenn du am sterben bist
penserai a me quando morirai
tu penseras à moi quand tu mourras
love is a rebellious bird is a ritual between carmen’s death and rebirth.
a flock of black birds guides the audience through a haunted opera experience.
birds deliver messages between darkness and light and sing of love and death at the dawn of a new world
LIBRETTO
carmen baltzar
DIRECTION
carmen baltzar & sara melleri
MUSIC
sid hille
CONDUCTOR
kaapo ijäs
ARTISTS
roseta la león / madiana lundberg / miritza lundberg / miska lundberg / isabella shaw / sakari topi
love is a rebellious bird is a collaborative opera based on my debut novel carmen, developed together with co-director Sara Melleri and composer Sid Hille, who each bring their own perspective to the carmen archetype. The libretto is mine.
My novel interprets this archetype by taking the Latin meaning of the name, spell, oracle, poem, as its starting point. As the work transitioned into the realm of opera, Bizet's interpretation inevitably became a stronger presence as one of the work's ghosts.
The opening phrase of the famous Habanera from Bizet's Carmen is Love is a rebellious bird. In Bizet's work, the bird serves as a crucial metaphor for Carmen's identity.
Like many other female operatic characters, Bizet's Carmen is destined to be murdered on stage in a scene that has played out endless times on opera stages.
love is a rebellious bird examines death, not as an end, but as part of a transformation. It features a majority Romani cast.
This piece was developed at Finnish National Opera's Sugar Factory incubator for new opera works.
