I'd like to put in a plug for my favorite opera of the 20th Century,
Karl-Birger Blomdahl's Aniara. The libretto (from a poem cycle by
Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinsen) deals with a starship carrying
hopeful survivors of Earth who are hoping to make a new life. Their
ship is knocked off course by an asteroid and is doomed to wander
in space. Its occupants, without hope, deal in various ways, some
with mindless hedonism, others with equally mindless science. In
many ways, it's a clear depiction of society at the end of the 20th
Century, without hope and without direction.

Musically, it's the closest I've ever come to a true
"gesamtkunstwerk," Wagner's term for the art form that would
embody all the arts. It starts with the ultimate tone row, the so-
called "grossmutterakkord," and incorporates jazz and vocalise in
the finest coloratura tradition (including a chilling moment at the
end where, according to the stage direction, one of the characters,
who is mute, "dances the disintegration of her soul"). Electronic
music (of the 50s concret variety) is introduced by the ship's brain,
which is represented by a sculpture that is a centerpiece of the
work.

Sadly, I don't know of any recent performances of the work. I first
heard it in college on an old Columbia LP. Being a science fiction
fan as well as a music lover, the cover and concept appealed to
me. However, the music will grab almost anyone, IMHO. There was
a CD issued a few years back with, I believe, Leif Siegerstam
conducting, but I fear it's OOP.

If a relatively unknown, currently unrecorded opera can be counted
as one of the great operas of the century, this is it. I have a feeling
it will be much better known when this same list is compiled in 100
years.