Hallo, Carmen/willi und alle ABBA-Fans -
laut Carl Magnus Palm, dem "ABBA-Guru", hat es nie ein Album namens "OPUS 10" gegeben noch ist dieser Name zu irgendeiner Zeit als Arbeitstitel verwendet worden. Der Begriff "OPUS 10" geriet in die Presse im Anschluss an ein Interview, das zu einer Zeit gefuehrt wurde, als ABBA 9 fertige Alben auf dem Markt hatte. Das was nun erwartet wurde, bekam (vom Journalisten vermutlich) die Bezeichnung "OPUS 10", was ja genau genommen nicht mehr bedeutet als "Zehntes Werk".
Sucht also nicht nach einem (unveroeffentlichtem) Album "Opus 10" - es handelt sich um eine "Ente" ......
Auf der Seite
http://www.carlmagnuspalm.com/abba/ovrigt/boxfaq.html findet man ein sehr langes Interview bzw. eine Zusammenfassung vieler FAQs ("haeufig gestellter Fragen"), allerdings nur in Englisch. Den fuer das Thema "OPUS 10" relevanten Teil habe ich hier fuer Euch - allerdings (wie gesagt) in Englisch - viel Spass damit und herzliche Gruesse an alle ABBA-Fans.
Hermann
_______________________________________
__________________
FAQ-Ausschnitt:
Could you clear up once and for all the question whether there is an unreleased ABBA album called Opus 10, recorded in 1982, lying in the vaults?
As far as the "ABBA people" (Björn, Benny, Agnetha, Frida, Michael, Stig, Görel, etc.) are concerned there has never been any album called Opus 10. It was never even a working title for them - not in 1981, not in 1982, nor in any other year. This is the story in as full detail as I could possibly tell it:
On June 8, 1981, Expressen (at the time the biggest daily in Sweden) ran an article headlined: "Now ABBA Are Recording Their 10th Album". The fact that this is to be their 10th album is referred to several times in the article. One example: "...[they] are working on a new album. It will be the 10th since 1973."
Please be aware that nowhere in this feature is Björn, Benny, Agnetha or Frida quoted as saying that they are working on their 10th album. This is just a theme that the journalist himself returns to a few times.
Now we come to the small passage in the article that is the source of so much confusion, rumours and misunderstandings that it fair boggles the mind:
"Nine albums so far, the tenth in the works. This is their own [worldwide] sales chart:
1) Super trooper [sic]
2) Greatest Hits I
3) Arrival
4) Greatest Hits II
[...]
And will 'Opus 10' now beat them all? Björn Ulvaeus replies:
- You never can tell beforehand. But of course you want to be just as good. At the very least."
The use of the title Opus 10, then, is just a case of the journalist jokingly referring to the fact that this was to be their tenth album: counting Ring Ring, counting Greatest Hits Vols. 1 and 2, not counting Gracias Por La Musica or any other "extra" album. He could have written "Masterpiece 10" or "Album 10" or "Song Collection 10" — he just happened to write "Opus 10". There is no other significance in that title whatsoever. Whether anyone else would argue that ABBA had released 19 albums or 58 albums or 5 albums is beside the point — at this time this was the number of albums this journalist decided ABBA had released.
The article was syndicated to foreign newspapers, and it's very probable that some nuances were lost in the translations. Indeed, the Swedish article itself is open to misinterpretation, so it's not so hard to misunderstand it. Thus, a myth was born.
For those still unconvinced this far, let me add a few arguments:
When I asked Björn about Opus 10 (before I had access to the Expressen article) in 1993, he said: "Yes, we heard that it was used as a title for a bootleg track, and we ask ourselves what the hell it is."
The track given the title Opus 10 by bootleggers is of course an early instrumental version of Anthem from Chess. On the tape box (a good enough source, I should hope) it has been titled Nationalsång, which means "National Anthem". Obviously, this title referred to the feeling Björn and Benny got from the melody, and it accordingly became Anthem in Chess. It was recorded as an instrumental in the studio during sessions for the The Visitors album. Apparently, Björn and Benny hoped that they could somehow turn this melody into something that could be used for ABBA. As in the case of Lotties Schottis (aka Dr. Claus von Hamlet aka Hamlet III), they decided it was better to wait until the right forum presented itself. Simple as that. End of story. Bootleggers (not only ABBA bootleggers) are famous for building on myths by using known or rumoured - but unreleased - titles for recordings they have no known title for. They could have called it "Anthem (Instrumental)", for instance. Alas, they chose Opus 10 in the hope of making fans believe that they would get some "unique", "never-before-heard" melody.
ABBA never used working titles for their albums. They recorded all their songs, then chose a title for the album, more often than not lifted from one of the song titles. Apparently, Arrival and Super Trouper were titles they had before they had the actual songs, but that was simply a consequence of the idea for the sleeve design suggesting album titles.
There is no evidence in any archive I have been to, or documents I have had access to (the years 1981 and 1982 were better documented than any other years) that suggests that ABBA recorded more than six songs in 1982 ("songs" in this context refers to professional studio recordings with proper backing tracks, intended for eventual release on record). At the beginning of the year they intended to record a complete studio album. By the late summer this project had been whittled down to a double album collection of their singles with two new tracks. Simple as that. No mystery.
Yes, the authorised Agnetha Fältskog biography As I Am refers to Opus 10 as a cancelled album. It's done in a section where we supposedly hear the voice of Agnetha. I would guess that this is a case of ghostwriting by author Brita Åhman, with this particular "fact" plucked from either Tobler's Complete Story or Oldham et al's The Name Of The Game. Tobler and the Oldham gang have obviously used the same sources as most authors, i.e. newspaper and magazine reports, accurate or otherwise.
Bastelideen
ABBA