A hypnotic new work from the Norwegian composer turns addiction, identity and self-destruction into a bold contemporary musical experience
What happens when opera steps outside its traditional boundaries and into the darker corners of contemporary culture?
For Norwegian composer Solveig Sørbø, the answer is Heroin Chic — a provocative new opera that brings together classical composition, avant-garde ideas and influences from popular culture to tell a deeply unsettling story of addiction, identity and the search for transcendence.
Set to a libretto by Norwegian novelist Maria Kjos Fonn, the 90-minute work follows Elise, a young woman caught between the idealised image created for her by her mother and an increasingly destructive desire to escape it. Her journey takes her through anorexia, drugs, fractured identity, sexuality and rehabilitation, with reality gradually becoming impossible to separate from fantasy.
But Heroin Chic is far from a conventional contemporary opera.
Sørbø’s score is deliberately expansive and unpredictable, combining captivating melodic passages with an intense orchestral palette. A hypnotic percussion section sits at the heart of the music, while the cimbalom takes on an unusual role within the contemporary classical setting.
The opera also contains an unusually large soprano role for a child singer, creating a striking musical representation of Elise’s younger self and the childhood identity she is unable to escape.
From Standing Ovations To The Studio
The project has already travelled considerably before reaching its recorded form.
Heroin Chic premiered in concert in Romania in February 2025 to an audience of 500, receiving a standing ovation and strong critical reactions. The production was praised for its emotional impact, philosophical depth and eclectic sound.
The opera subsequently made its Norwegian debut at Oslo’s Parkteatret in February 2026. The sold-out performance combined classical performers with live visuals and staged elements, giving the work a theatrical dimension that extended beyond the music itself.
Then came an unusual recording challenge.
Just two days after the Norwegian performance, the entire 90-minute opera was recorded live to tape at Jar Church outside Oslo — with the full work captured in a single day.
That immediacy is important to the project. Rather than presenting Heroin Chic as something distant or purely academic, the recording aims to retain the energy and intensity of the performances and place the listener directly inside Sørbø’s world.
The album features Susanna Wolff, Sofia Neacsu, Siv Misund, Ivar Magnus Sandve and Johannes Nikolai Aas, with Ensemble Oslo conducted by Hans Petter Mæhle. The recording was engineered and produced by Trond Kjelsås of LydFest.
Where Classical Music Meets Popular Culture
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Heroin Chic is the way it refuses to separate contemporary classical music from the culture surrounding it.
Its story deals with subjects that are recognisably modern, while its musical language stretches across different traditions. The result is an opera that can be experienced not simply as a traditional stage work, but as a large-scale piece of contemporary storytelling.
Sørbø’s approach also leaves room for uncertainty. As Elise’s story progresses, the boundaries between life and death, memory and reality, and physical experience and fantasy become increasingly blurred.
By the final moments, there is no straightforward answer to what has happened to her.
And perhaps that is precisely where Heroin Chic finds its power: rather than explaining its central character, it invites the listener into her fractured world and leaves them there.
Now, following its performances in Romania and Norway, Heroin Chic is moving from the concert hall to record.
The album will be released 16 October 2026 via Solsnu, distributed by Diger, in digital lossless, 2CD and 2xVinyl formats.
For Sørbø, it marks another chapter in a work that has already challenged expectations of what contemporary opera can sound — and feel — like.
