PEER GYNT

In the organizer's words:

At the end of his days, Peer Gynt takes stock: what has he done with his life? He never took the truth too seriously and is still lying to himself now. What adventures he has had! He has supposedly been to faraway lands, even to the realm of the trolls. But the mysterious button caster, who demands an account from him, knows no mercy. If Peer has not managed to put his own individual stamp on his existence, the button caster will melt him or his soul down and make a new button out of it. In despair, Peer has to admit to himself that he is not even a real villain, let alone a hero. In fact, he's nothing at all, just average at best. Only Solveig, the woman who has loved him since his youth, disagrees. For her, Peer is unique. Can Solveig's love save Peer?

Henrik Ibsen's dramatic poem "Peer Gynt" was not originally intended for the stage, which is why the poet was able to give free rein to his imagination and the countless changes of location associated with it. It was published as a play in Oslo in 1876, with the famous incidental music by Edvard Grieg. In Karl Alfred Schreiner's interpretation, Grieg's music also creates the tonal atmosphere that transports us on the trail of Peer Gynt to Nordic sagas and distant lands. A selection of well-known and lesser-known pieces by the Norwegian composer characterizes the individual scenes with their contrasting moods. Parts of the incidental music naturally form the basis, but excerpts from the suite "From Holberg's Time", the "Norwegian Dances" or the lyrical piece "Heart Wounds" also create the background against which Peer Gynt's individual life episodes unfold. The centerpiece of the whole is the short orchestral work "Oceans" by Icelandic composer María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir in the middle of the evening, marked by the death of Peer's mother Åse, which evokes the infinity of the ocean in its sonic expanse.