Netflix Series "Sense8" Shoots At Harpa Hall In Reykjavík, Iceland

Tuppence Middleton  (right) as Riley Blue [née Gunnarsdóttir], stands with her father Gunar (second from left)
 getting high in front of Harpa concert hall in Iceland before the big concert.

In April 2015, Opera Fresh did a feature on architect Olafur Eliasson and his work with opera houses. Now one of his projects is featured in the newest Netflix hit series Sense8. The 12-episode series was released in its entirety on June 5. The show is shot on location in Chicago, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Seoul, Reykjavík, Mexico City, Nairobi and Mumbai. The science fiction drama web television series created, written and executive-produced by Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix, Bound, Jupiter Ascending) and J. Michael Straczynski (World War Z, Changeling, They Marched into Sunlight).

Episode 10, "What is Human," features a climactic scene where Riley's father Gunar is giving a performance of the "Allegro" movement from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 ("The Emperor") and all the sensates present recall the moment of their births. This intoxicating musical moment also triggers something in Riley and blood begins running down her face as she faints at the end of the episode. She will soon be sent to a hospital and discovered by Mr. Whispers. 

"Despite its use of simple chords, including a second theme constructed almost entirely out of tonic and dominant notes and chords, the first movement is full of complex thematic transformations. When the piano enters with the first theme, the expository material is repeated with variations, virtuoso figurations, and modified harmonies. The second theme enters in the unusual key of B minor before moving to B major and at last to the expected key of B-flat major several bars later. Following the opening flourish, the movement follows Beethoven's trademark three-theme sonata structure for a concerto. The orchestral exposition is a typical two-theme sonata exposition, but the second exposition with the piano has a triumphant virtuoso third theme at the end that belongs solely to the solo instrument. Beethoven does this in many of his concertos. The coda at the end of the movement is quite long, and, again typical of Beethoven, uses the open-ended first theme and gives it closure to create a satisfying conclusion." [Source]

More about Sense8, the actor who plays the piano-playing character of Gunar, a complete performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major (Op. 73) by Krystian Zimerman, and another operatic connection to Sense8, after the jump.