Kvinne og Kamerat – with music by Siv Trine Haldaas, is a portrait of Augusta Aasen (1878–1920) from Osen — one of Norway’s leading advocates for labour rights and women’s rights.

Opera Café presents curated, high-quality concerts in informal settings, where the audience gets close to outstanding opera singers.

We challenge both audiences and performers with a diverse program, highlighting queer, unique, and marginalized voices. In this way, we create a low-threshold meeting place that fosters dialogue, knowledge, and interest in opera, reaching a broad audience.

In collaboration with Queer Voices, we provide space and work for queer artists and stories. Queer performers and audience members have long been part of the opera community, and we aim to make room for stories that reflect their experiences. The audience gains insight into the music and the singer’s artistry through personal anecdotes and historical perspectives.

Opera Café has grown into a platform for artistic collaboration across genres, without hierarchy or the pursuit of status. We aim to reflect the diversity of society, and today our audience ranges from 18 to 90. Encounters across generations, cultures, and identities have become a natural part of our expression.

Siv Trine Haldaas – playwright, composer, and performer – presents an excerpt from an entirely new work currently in development. The script is based on Arild Bye’s biography Augusta Aasen – Viljen. Striden. Reisen. En livshistorie 1878–1920 (Foreningen Gamle Steinkjer, 2020).

The music, performed by string quartet and mezzosoprano, forms part of the narrative as an active counterpart, closely interwoven with the text. It sketches both the emotional foundations of the story and the dramatic arc, while alluding to the political currents that shaped Augusta Aasen’s lifelong dedication.