| Maskarade | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Carl Nielsen | |
 Poster for the premiere performance | |
| Librettist | Vilhelm Andersen |
| Language | Danish |
| Premiere | |
Maskarade (Masquerade) is an opera in three acts by Carl Nielsen to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg. It was first performed on 11 November 1906 at Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen. Maskarade has enjoyed enduring popularity in Denmark where it is considered to be the country's national opera.
Nielsen first considered writing an opera based on Holberg's play Maskarade around the turn of the 20th century. He contacted Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953) whom he knew from his student days, hoping to persuade him to write a libretto. Andersen initially refused but finally agreed, allowing Nielsen to start composing in May 1904. The Royal Theatre scheduled the opera even before it was finished. In fact, Nielsen completed the overture only on 3 November, a week before the opera's premiere. [1]
The world premiere of Maskarade took place at Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen on 11 November 1906. It was a resounding success from the start with an exceptional run of 25 performances over its first four months. Reviews in the press were however mixed, the consensus being that the first act was the best, the second was rather weak and the third lacked theatrical clarity although the music was brilliant. [1] Announcement of plans to turn Holberg's classical comedy into an opera buffa had met with dismay in Danish literary circles, but the opera was immediately popular, more so than the play itself. Now considered to be Denmark's national opera, it has enjoyed lasting success in the country, attributable to its many strophic songs, its dances and its underlying "old Copenhagen" atmosphere. In 2006, Denmark's Ministry of Culture named it one of Denmark's twelve greatest musical works. [1] [2] [3]
The opera did not premiere in the United States until 1972 when it was performed by the St. Paul Opera in Minnesota with conductor Igor Buketoff, Mary Beth Peil as Leonora, and Clinton Ware as Leander. [4] The first reported New York performance was by the Bronx Opera Company in 1983. [5] It was performed in the US again in 2014, when it had its Chicago premiere on 18 January at the Vittum Theater performed by the Vox3 Collective. [6] Maskarade received a major international revival in 2005 in a new production by David Pountney which was performed at the Bregenz Festival in August of that year and travelled to the Royal Opera House the following month for its first performance by the company. [7] [8] The opera had been previously performed in the UK at London's Morley College in 1983 and in Leeds by Opera North in 1990. [9]
Despite its popularity in his home country, Nielsen was not entirely satisfied with the work, citing structural weakness in the final two acts; but he never got around to revising the work. The overture and the ballet from the third act ("Dance of the Cockerels") are performed frequently, as noted by the Carl Nielsen Society, which states that the overture is one of Nielsen's most widely performed works at concerts in Europe and North America. [10]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 11 November 1906 [11] Conductor: Carl Nielsen |
|---|---|---|
| Jeronimus, a citizen of Copenhagen | bass-baritone | Karl Mantzius |
| Magdelone, his wife | alto or mezzo-soprano | Jonna Neiiendam |
| Leander, their son | tenor | Hans Kierulf |
| Henrik, Leander's valet | bass-baritone | Helge Nissen |
| Arv, Jeronimus' servant | tenor | Lars Knudsen |
| Leonard, a citizen of Slagelse | tenor or baritone | Peter Jerndorff |
| Leonora, his daughter | soprano | Emilie Ulrich |
| Pernille, Leonora's maid | soprano or mezzo-soprano | Ida Møller/Margrethe Lindrop |
| Mask Vendor | baritone | |
| Doorman at the Playhouse | bass | |
| A Tutor | bass | |
| Night Watchman | bass | |
| Master of the Masquerade | bass | Albert Petersen |
| Masqueraders, Students, Girls, Officers | ||
The story revolves around Leander and Leonora, two young people who meet fortuitously at a masquerade ball, swear their undying love for each other and exchange rings. The following day, Leander tells his valet Henrik of his newfound love. He becomes distraught when reminded by Henrik that his parents have betrothed him in marriage to Leonora, the daughter of Leonard from remote Slagelse. Things get complicated when Leonard himself, whose daughter Leonora is the other part of this arrangement, comes complaining to Leander's father that Leonora is in love with someone she met at the masquerade the previous night. In the third act, all is resolved when the various parties slip off to the night's masquerade, where all is revealed to everyone's mutual satisfaction.
As part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen's birth, the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen staged eleven well-received performances of Maskarade from March to May 2015. [12] [13] The Royal Danish Opera's schedule for 2015 includes performances of a chamber version of the opera in three other locations in Denmark from mid-July to early September. The Maskarade overture has been included in the first night of Britain's BBC Proms on 17 July 2015. [14] [15]
Carl August Nielsen was a Danish composer, conductor, and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer.
Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano–Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, the Enlightenment and the Baroque. Holberg is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature. He was also a prominent Neo-Latin author, known across Europe for his writing. He is best known for the comedies he wrote in 1722–1723 for the Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen. Holberg's works about natural and common law were widely read by many Danish law students over two hundred years, from 1736 to 1936.
Masquerade or Masquerades may refer to:
The culture of Denmark has a rich artistic and scientific heritage. The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), the philosophical essays of Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), the short stories of Karen Blixen, penname Isak Dinesen, (1885–1962), the plays of Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754), modern authors such as Herman Bang and Nobel laureate Henrik Pontoppidan and the dense, aphoristic poetry of Piet Hein (1905–1996), have earned international recognition, as have the symphonies of Carl Nielsen (1865–1931). From the mid-1990s, Danish films have attracted international attention, especially those associated with Dogme 95 like those of Lars Von Trier. Denmark has had a strong tradition of movie making and Carl Theodor Dreyer has been recognised as one of the world's greatest film directors. The astronomical discoveries of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), Ludwig A. Colding's (1815–1888) neglected articulation of the principle of conservation of energy, and the foundational contributions to atomic physics of Niels Bohr (1885–1962); in this century Lene Vestergaard Hau in quantum physics involving the stopping of light, advances in nano-technology, and contributions to the understanding of Bose-Einstein Condensates, demonstrate the range and endurance of Danish scientific achievement.
Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the burial site of many Danish notables as well as an important greenspace in the Nørrebro district. Inaugurated in 1760, it was originally a burial site for the poor laid out to relieve the crowded graveyards inside the walled city, but during the Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century it became fashionable and many leading figures of the epoch, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, and Christen Købke are all buried here.
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, is a Danish orchestra based in Copenhagen. The DNSO is the principal orchestra of DR. The DRSO is based at the Koncerthuset concert hall in Copenhagen.
Michael Detlev Schønwandt is a Danish conductor. In Denmark, he studied piano, theory, and composition, and later continued musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
The Royal Danish Orchestra is a Danish orchestra based in Copenhagen. The Danish name for the orchestra indicates its original function as an ensemble geared to supplying the music for court events. The Royal Danish Orchestra presently consists of around 100 musicians. The principal venue for the orchestra's traditional symphony concerts is the Copenhagen Opera House, where the orchestra also serves as the orchestra for the Royal Danish Opera, as well as holding several annual chamber orchestra concerts in the foyer of the smaller experimental stage Takkelloftet. Most ballet and some opera performances take place at the Old Stage of the Royal Danish Theatre.
Ulf Schirmer is a German conductor and opera house administrator.
Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann was, together with his son-in-law Niels W. Gade, the leading Danish composer of the 19th century, a period known as the Danish Golden Age. According to Alfred Einstein, he was "the real founder of the Romantic movement in Denmark and even in all Scandinavia". J.P.E. Hartmann was the third generation of composers in the Danish musical Hartmann family.
Elves' Hill is a comedy by Johan Ludvig Heiberg, with overture and incidental music by Friedrich Kuhlau, which is considered the first Danish national play.
Theobald Stein was a Danish sculptor. He was a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and served as its director from 1883 to 1886.
Karl Mantzius was a Danish actor, stage and film director, theatre scholar, and operatic baritone.
Vilhelm Rasmus Andreas Andersen was a Danish author, literary historian and intellectual, who primarily focused on the study of Danish literature. He was one of the first to use the term "Golden Age of Culture" to refer to the 1800s, and his focus on bringing Danish literature to the public earned him great popularity. Andersen was instrumental in the development of the School of Radio, as a means of disseminating public education to prevent loss of cultural identity and treasures.
Peter William Jerndorff was a Danish stage actor and opera singer. Amongst the roles he created were Dr. Rank in Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House and Leonard in Carl Nielsen's 1906 opera Maskarade. Towards the end of his career he taught diction and acting and appeared in Carl Dreyer's 1922 silent film Der var engang. His students included the Danish opera singers Lauritz Melchior and Vilhelm Herold. Jerndoff died in Copenhagen, the city of his birth, at the age of 84.
Emilie Ulrich was a Danish soprano who sang leading roles at the Royal Danish Opera from 1894 until her retirement from the stage in 1917.
Helge Nissen was a Danish operatic bass-baritone, conductor, voice teacher, and film actor who was associated with the Royal Danish Theatre from 1897 until his death in 1926. He notably created roles in the world premieres of two operas by composer Carl Nielsen: Abner in Saul og David (1902) and Henrik in Maskarade (1906). His voice is preserved on a total of 70 recordings made with the Pathé, HMV and Deutsche Grammophon record companies from 1908 to 1914.
The Fidget is a satirical play published by Ludvig Holberg in 1723. It premiered at Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen on 25 November 1726.
Tina Sarsøe Kiberg is a Danish operatic soprano who has gained international success, thanks in particular for her leading roles in the operas of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. In addition to performances at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, she has sung in Bayreuth and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
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