This spring, the Danish composer Peter Arnold Heise’s (1830-1879) work “King and Marshall” (Drot & Marsk) will be published for the first time in a critical edition in collaboration with Edition·S – music¬sound¬art. The work has never been published before.
“King and Marshall” is one of the most significant Danish operas and was composed by Heise in 1876-77. The opera was composed for a libretto written by Christian Richardt and focuses on the assassination of the Danish King Erik Glipping in 1286. The assassination took place in Finderup Barn in Jutland and was committed by the King’s marshal and a group of conspirators. The opera does not concentrate on a political motive for the murder, but rather on the ménage à trois between King Erik, his marshal Stig Andersen and Stig’s wife, Ingeborg.
The newly published critical edition contains a list of variants and changes carried out by Heise and with documentation for the emendations, which editors have made. The opera first premiered in 1878 at The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen and has been a regular part of the theatre’s repertoire ever since. It has maintained its position amongst other operas from the nineteenth century both from a dramatic as well as musical point of view. The opera is published with Danish lyrics only; however the description of the scenes and stage directions are given in Danish with an English translation.
Excerpts from the opera will be performed by vocal soloists accompanied by the piano, at the official launch of the critical edition held at The Royal Library, Copenhagen on April 5, 2013 at 3 pm in the Queen’s Hall. Free admission.