Cast a Diva

This is precisely how the Finnish composer and jazz pianist Iiro Rantala saw her on stage, and was so captivated that, together with his librettist Minna Lindgren, he wrote a ‘songspiel’ tailored especially for her: Cast a Diva. With this title, anyone detecting a playful nod to a certain famous aria from Bellini’s Norma would not be entirely mistaken.

Tonight, with the help of her fantastically talented fellow actor Sylvester Groth, Dagmar Manzel will play a character who is not herself, but could possibly be, if she were not already who she is. And this alternative version of Dagmar Manzel – who bears no resemblance to her whatsoever – discovers one day that there are people in her scene who feel compelled to comment on her advancing age. She won’t have it! Have you ever seen a diva lose her composure?

With passion, wit, and melancholy, Iiro Rantala, Minna Lindgren, and director Ingo Kerkhof present the delights and torments of a diva who has reached an age at which being a diva no longer comes quite so effortlessly. For the swinging soundtrack, Iiro Rantala himself sits at the piano each evening, joined by a small, personally selected jazz combo.