About the work
Cast a Diva is a songspiel by the Finnish jazz pianist and composer Iiro Rantala, based on an English-language text by Minna Lindgren that Susanne Wolf translated into German. Rantala wrote the piece specifically for the actress and singer Dagmar Manzel after seeing her in operetta and musical productions at the Komische Oper Berlin directed by Barrie Kosky. The Komische Oper Berlin commissioned the roughly half-hour work; Ingo Kerkhof directs, and Rantala accompanies the performances himself at the piano with a small jazz combo he assembled. The premiere is scheduled for 17 April 2027 at the Schillertheater of the Komische Oper Berlin.
Plot
The piece centres on a fictional diva who resembles Manzel's own stage persona without being equated with her. The character finds herself confronted with comments on her advancing age and meets them with fury, wit and melancholy. The title plays on the famous aria "Casta diva" from Vincenzo Bellini's opera "Norma".
Cultural significance
Cast a Diva continues Rantala's collaboration with the writer Minna Lindgren, with whom he previously created the opera "Sanatorio Express" (Finnish National Opera, 2018) and the children's opera "Die Zaubermelodika" (Komische Oper Berlin, 2021), his first commission for the Komische Oper Berlin. As the premiere is not scheduled until April 2027, the work's reception is not yet documented.