Bálrautt teppi úr bútasaum – Children’s Opera

Did you know that ketchup tastes best when eaten through a mitten? Have you ever felt the same joy as a mackerel heading out into the open sea? Why are there so few songs about autumn? And why are they always about how grey and gloomy it is? Why is autumn over just as we are beginning to get used to it? Could it be because we simply have nothing beautiful to say about it? 

Bálrautt teppi úr bútasaum is a new children’s opera by composer Gísli Jóhann Grétarsson and writer and director Oda Fiskum. The work will receive its world premiere at Reykjavík Opera Days 2026. Sólveig Sigurðardóttir has translated the work into Icelandic. 

The performance is like a lively songbook, where a patchwork of curiosity, playfulness, and wonder, expressed through text and music, is stitched together with lyrical arias in verse and colorful ink drawings.

Oda Fiskum and Gísli Jóhann work together in the Nordic opera troupe Operakollektivet. This is the third opera they have created collaboratively. 

The performance starts at 11:00 and 12:15.

The performance is in Icelandic.  

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