PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS

A new Danish chamber opera by John Frandsen based on the novel "Dyrets Aars" by Lone Hørslev, which focuses on a the sexual awakening of a young Danish woman, Marie Grubbe, at the Norwegian court. An opera about belief, death, downfall and passion.

Young Marie Grubbe lives in Akershus Castle in Oslo. It is winter. She is newly-wed in an arranged and loveless marriage with King Frederik III’s bastard son Gyldenløve. In these frozen surrondings she discovers her own warm blood - she falls passionately in love with the French-born Master of the King's Horses, thus beginning a life-long uncompromising fascination with eroticism and her own sexuality. The ensueing wild and sensual lifestyle ultimately leads her to a disasterous social downfall.

The opera takes place in the year 1666 - a year which many interpreted as the year of the apocalypse, containing, as it does, the so-called number of the beast - 666 - from the Book of Revelation. The day of judgement is nigh!

Cast:
Director: Madeleine Røn Juul
Designer: Gøje Rostrup
Conductor: David Riddell

Radmila Rajic (sopran)
Katinka Fogh Vindelev (soprano)
Camilla Button (soprano)
Sidsel Aja Eriksen (mezzo soprano)
Morten Grove Frandsen (counter tenor)
Petter Moen (tenor)
Teit Kanstrup (baritone)
Jens Bruno Hansen (bass)

The Danish Sinfonietta

The Year of the Beast - 1666 was supported by: Augustinus Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Aarhus Stiftstidendes Fond, CAC Fonden, Dansk Komponistforening, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, and KODA-Dramatik.