Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt – incidental music to the drama by Henrik Ibsen

Cast – Actors

• Peer Gynt: J. Langmajer
• The Narrator, also cast in the following seven parts: The Bridegroom (Mads); The Old Man of Dovre; The Obstacle; The Leaseholder; The Passenger; The Man in Mourning; The Button-Moulder: P. Soukup
• Solveig, Anitra, ?se, the Girl in Green: M. Procházková

In 1867, the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) wrote the five-act dramatic poem Peer Gynt, which was not originally intended for staging. The story takes place in various very distant places (including Egypt) and depicts the fate of the globetrotter Peer Gynt who returns home Norway as an old man after many adventures in order finally to meet with Solveig, who waited faithfully for him her whole life and who is the last chance to save the unhappy sinner. In the story, realistic scenes of Norwegian life and rugged nature or exotic African landscapes are intermingled with a dream that takes Gynt to realm of the troll king. In 1874, Henrik Ibsen was the first to come up with the idea of combining his drama with music, and he himself approached Edvard Grieg. The work’s lavishly staged premiere on February 24, 1876 in the Mollergaden Theatre in Christiania (today Oslo) enjoyed a triumphant success.

During Grieg’s lifetime, Peer Gynt was produced three more times, and each time the composer made more changes and additions. Then in 1886 he arranged two orchestral suites, op. 46 and 55, from the incidental music. The suites have become popular items in the symphonic repertoire. Particularly beloved are the beautiful symphonic movement Morning Mood (the prelude to act four in the drama), Arabian Dance with women’s choir and mezzo-soprano solo, the enchanting Solveig’s Song or Grieg’s greatest “hit”, In the Hall of the Mountain King – an effective, Orff-like depiction of an army of enraged trolls.

The original theatrical version with soloists, chorus and melodrama is far less well know than the suites. The Prague State Opera is performing the original incidental music for the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Norwegian composer (he died on September 4, 1907), who twice conducted in Prague in the Rudolfinum (March 25, 1903 and April 16, 1906, with the Czech Philharmonic on the second occasion) and who had close personal ties with several Czech musicians, especially Antonín Dvořák and Josef Bohuslav Foerster.

• Text adapted by: Alain Perroux
• French version translated into Czech by: Anna Kareninová
• Performed in Norwegian (sung parts) and
  in Czech (spoken parts).

The official partner of the concerts is the Roayl Norwegian Embassy to the Czech Republic.