‘Earth Elegies’ – a performance concert and a suite in 18 parts.

The Glyptotek and Kind of Opera present ‘Earth Elegies’ – a new interdisciplinary performance concert, which reinterprets the classic myth of Persephone and equates the labor of childbirth with the regeneration of nature. Created and composed by Katinka Fogh Vindelev performed with 70 singers from Copenhagen Girls’ Choir and a string trio staged in collaboration with choreographer Marie Topp.

An elegy is a lament that mourns what has been lost. In ‘Earth Elegies’ the song calls for awakening, in a confrontation with our 2000-year-old cultural Christian view that everything is created from above. An attitude that has so greatly influenced our view of nature, disenchanted nature and contributed to inappropriate exploitation of the resources of the Earth.

In ‘Earth Elegies’, the Greek goddess Persephone returns to the Central Hall of the Glyptotek to give birth. Persephone is goddess of the underworld and daughter of Demeter, goddess of agriculture and harvest.

Like the regeneration of crops, her birth is a long one: we follow her labor of birth over nine months together with a choir of young girls who work in the fields and struggle, while night frosts, drought and dust storms threaten the harvest, before the laments are finally released in a proclamation of spring and life.

The performance addresses the question: How do we restore a connection to nature, so that we begin to care for it instead of tormenting it?

The performance is based on Sofie Isager Ahl’s poetry suite Earth Elegies (Forlaget Virkelig, 2026).

The performance will play on
March 5 at 6.30 pm Premiere
March 7 at 3.00 pm with artist talk
March 8 at 3.00 pm

Get tickets here

Katinka and Sofie met in the fall of 2020 in connection with Katinka’s audience-engaging choral work Gravitational Shift (2019-2022), which is based on women’s birth cries, stretched in time and thereby made singable for mixed voices with different musical skills and backgrounds.

At the same time, Sofie was working on her PhD on new agricultural movements. Her research centered on mutually healing practices, which culminated in publication of the book Regeneration in 2023, published by the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology.

During the same period, Marie Topp worked in her practice with choreographic temporalities, including cyclical perception of time, rebirth and moments in the work Maze.

Karin Gille is centered around the visually symbolic and strongly sensual in her works, as well as a desire to create resonance between the visual and auditory space.

Through concerts, opera, signature events and interactive formats, Kind of Opera explores how classical music can find a vibrant place in the contemporary world. Based on the team’s shared interests, lamentation and hope are therefore treated multidimensionally through a modern music-dramatic and artistic expression.

Katinka Fogh Vindelev, composer & soprano
Sofie Isager Ahl, poet
Marie Topp, choreographer
Karin Gille, scenographer

Sankt Annæ Pigekor / Copenhagen Girl’s choir conducted by Anne-Terese Sales

Louise Gorm, violin
Mika Persdotter, viola
Marie Louise Lind, cello

Phillip Jørgensen, photographer
Maj Jeanne Renoux, assistent
Trine Heide, producer
Produced by Kind Of Opera in collaboration with Glyptoteket

earth elegies is supported by Augustinus Fonden, Statens Kunstfond, Knud Højgaards Fond, William Demant Fonden, Louis-Hansen Fonden. Dansk Komponistforening, Dansk Artistforbund, Dansk Musikerforbund, Axel Muusfeldts Fond, KODA Dramatik, Gribskov Kommune og Guldborgssund Kommune.