What better way to usher in the new year than by writing an opera that commemorates the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species? Well, according to recent news, Swedish brother/sister duo The Knife is doing just that. An announcement made last week states that Danish theatre group Hotel Pro Forma invited the pair to “write music and libretto for Tomorrow, In a Year, a Darwin Opera.”

From the Hotel Pro Forma site:

“The opera concept places the performance on a large scale and in a space of reality where expression dominates. The Swedish music group The Knife creates completely new compositions that challenge the conventional conception of opera. The form is experimental and exploratory. The music is written for three singers who come from different backgrounds: electronica pop, classical opera, and performance. They are the protagonists of the performance, displaying three ways of experiencing the world. They are the spokesman, the organizer, and the one who acts. They are structure, sensation, form, time, and thought.”

And they will apparently be accompanied by numerous found sounds, as Olof Dreijer is currently “at a field… in the Amazon, to record animals, fish, and plants.”

The opera will premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark in September of 2009.

Photo By Elin Berge.