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Tekla Griebel Wandall tribute at the Copenhagen Opera Festival

The Copenhagen Opera Festival hosts a tribute to Tekla Griebel Wandall and her extraordinary work, as three brilliant soloists perform a potpourri from the opera King Hroar’s Skalds – a piece that lay hidden in an archive drawer at the Royal Danish Theatre for nearly a century.

Tekla Griebel Wandall (1866–1940) was considered Denmark’s leading female composer around the turn of the 20th century. Yet not a single one of her more than one hundred works has ever been recorded.

The works of Tekla Griebel Wandall are (re)published as part of the ongoing publication project Danish Classical Music, including King Hroar’s Skalds – a work she laboured over for 33 years.

The three-act opera was never performed in her lifetime and remained untouched in the Royal Danish Theatre’s archive until musicologist Thomas Husted Kirkegaard scanned its pages, which eventually made their way to soprano Laura Helene Hansen, winner of the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize. Alongside mezzosopranos Kirsten Voss and Nana Bugge Rasmussen, and pianist Louise Schrøder, she now brings to life the characters of Yrsa, Skulde, and Svafa in a musical potpourri where Griebel Wandall’s playfulness and precision shine through.

Listen to the 5 episodes podcast  Tekla about the life and work of Tekla Griebel Wandall here.