Heise, Peter: Drot og Marsk / King and Marshal (Vocal Score HARDBACK)

Composer: Peter Heise
Subtitle: Tragisk opera i 4 akter
Author/librettist: Christian Richardt
Cloth binding, hand-bound. 27 x 19 cm

Peter Heise's opera King and Marshal (Drot og Marsk) was composed in the years 1876-77 to a libretto by Christian Richardt, which was built partly on the old folk ballads about Marshal Stig, and partly on Carsten Hauch's tragedy, Marshal Stig (Marsk Stig), which had been performed at The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in 1850 with incidental music by Henrik Rung. The opera deals with the murder of King Erik Glipping in 1286. While the murder was, in reality, probably politically motivated, it was framed by Christian Richardt as a play about the eternal triangle between King Erik, his marshal, Stig Andersen and the marshal's wife, Ingeborg. When the Marshal leaves to make war against Sweden, he asks the King to protect his wife's virtue while he is away. But instead, the King seduces lngeborg, and when he returns home, the Marshal swears revenge. On St Cecilia's Night -the night between 22 and 23 November 1286 - the Marshal, together with a group of conspirators, murder King Erik in Finderup Barn near Viborg in Jutland. King and Marshal was first performed at The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen, on 25 September 1878, and was quickly established thereafter as part of the theatre's regular repertoire. King and Marshal is, therefore, amongst the most frequently performed Danish operas, alongside J .P.E. Hartmann's Little Kirsten (Liden Kirsten) and Carl Nielsen's Saul and David and Maskarade. Until now, King and Marshal has only once been performed outside Denmark, in Stuttgart in 1906.

This vocal score has been prepared by the pianist Per Salo, and is based on the critical / scholarly edition of the score to King and Marshal, which includes a detailed account of the relationships between the sources of the work together with source-based revisions and variants, undertaken by the editors. The vocal parts are directly carried over from the new edition of the score, while the original vocal score from 1878, prepared by Axel Grandjean, has formed the basis for the piano part. The vocal score includes an unsingable word-by-word translation into English of the Danish libretto, for use by non-Danish speaking singers, musicians and researchers. As a further support for non-Danish singers, a sound recording of the Danish text has been made, in order to demonstrate the correct pronunciation.

The opera is published by the Danish Centre for Music Publication of the Royal Library in cooperation with Edition·S – music¬sound¬art.