Following on from Carmen on the lake in Bregenz, doing the world premiere of Daniel Bjarnason's Brothers at Den Jyske Opera in Aarhus is not just a huge honor, but also the perfect antidote: A dark, contemporary, compact and intense piece, which goes straight to the core of the terrifying story without any sentiment. This is an opera about the price we pay for going to war, a story about the difficult coming home, but also about universal human emotions and how much pain we can inflict on others and ourselves. Steffen Aarfing and I have kept the production very simple to allow the intense colors in Daniel's music to come out - and I believe Daniel has written a masterpiece. He will be the next big thing in opera, I swear! The opera is part of the Bier Trilogy, with a new opera, musical and dance piece based on three Susanne Bier movies as part of Kulturby 2017 (European Capital of Culture 2017), and we are proud to start the project with Brothers.

Doing Carmen on the lake stage in Bregenz was one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had in my professional life. It was amazing to work on this scale, outdoors, and trying to tell this famous story in a fresh, uncluttered, entertaining but also probing way, doing away with cliches and getting to the core of the story about two people who are both fighting for their place in life, who need each other, and who end up destroying each other! But the most incredible thing was the people, the colleagues, behind, in front, beneath, above, around the stage - singers, musicians, technicians and everyone else involved in this long, intense process, and of course especially the creative team around me. I am really proud of the result, and of the fact that almost 400,000 people will see Carmen live on the Bodensee in 2017 and 2018. But as the shows are totally sold out for 2017 already, you have a chance - if you don't want to wait for 2018 - to watch the production on DVD.