Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War

How is opera possible under the daily threat of war? The Ukrainian collective Kyiv Opera Aperta answers this question with an interdisciplinary work that weaves together theatre, music and political reflection. Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War follows an artistic ensemble on a journey through diverse styles, texts, temporalities and contexts: a crossing of both macro and micro-histories. The project is rooted in the collective’s actual travels across scarred geographies and ancestral rituals: from the Carpathian Mountains, marked by conflict and political upheaval, to the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, a haunting emblem of one of the world’s most severe manmade environmental disasters, and finally to ‘La Vijanera’ in Silió, Cantabria: an ancient carnival that endures as a vital communal celebration. The work’s dramaturgical core is the Mōdraniht, the ‘Night of the Mothers’: an ancient Anglo-Saxon pagan rite of the winter solstice. On this, the year’s longest night, communities gather in dance to shield their homes and welcome the return of the light.

Recommended for ages 18+.
The performance contains nudity.
Strobe effects and loud sound are used.