Maskarade

Background and performance history

Nielsen first considered writing an opera based on Holberg's play Maskarade around the turn of the 20th century. He contacted Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953) whom he knew from his student days, hoping to persuade him to write a libretto. Andersen initially refused but finally agreed, allowing Nielsen to start composing in May 1904. The Royal Theatre scheduled the opera even before it was finished. In fact, Nielsen only completed the overture on 3 November, a week before the opera's premiere.

The world premiere of Maskarade took place at Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen on 11 November 1906. It was a resounding success from the start with an exceptional run of 25 performances over its first four months. Reviews in the press were however mixed, the consensus being that the first act was the best, the second was rather weak and the third lacked theatrical clarity although the music was brilliant. Announcement of plans to turn Holberg’s classical comedy into an opera buffa met with dismay in Danish literary circles, but the opera was immediately popular, more so than the play itself. Now considered to be Denmark's national opera, it has enjoyed lasting success in the country, attributable to its many strophic songs, its dances and its underlying "old Copenhagen" atmosphere. In 2006, Denmark's Ministry of Culture named it one of Denmark's twelve greatest musical works.

The opera did not premiere in the United States until 1972 when it was performed by St. Paul Opera in Minnesota, conducted by Igor Buketoff. The first reported New York performance was by the Bronx Opera Company in 1983. It was performed in the US again in 2014, when it had its Chicago premiere on 18 January at the Vittum Theater performed by the Vox3 Collective. Maskarade received a major international revival in 2005 in a new production by David Pountney which was performed at the Bregenz Festival in August of that year and travelled to the Royal Opera House the following month for its first performance by the company. The opera had been previously performed in the UK at London's Morley College in 1983 and in Leeds by Opera North in 1990.

Despite its popularity in his home country, Nielsen was not entirely satisfied with the work, citing structural weakness in the final two acts; but he never got around to revising the work. The overture and the ballet from the third act ("Dance of the Cockerels") are performed frequently, as noted by the Carl Nielsen Society, which states that the overture is one of Nielsen's most widely performed works at concerts in Europe and North America.

Synopsis

The story revolves around Leander and Leonora, two young people who meet fortuitously at a masquerade ball, swear their undying love for each other and exchange rings. The following day, Leander tells his valet Henrik of his newfound love. He becomes distraught when reminded by Henrik that his parents have betrothed him in marriage to Leonora, the daughter of Leonard from remote Slagelse. Things get complicated when Leonard himself, whose daughter Leonora is the other part of this arrangement, comes complaining to Leander’s father that Leonora is in love with someone she met at the masquerade the previous night. In the third act, all is resolved when the various parties slip off to the night's masquerade, where all is revealed to everyone's mutual satisfaction.

Commemorative performances

As part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen's birth, the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen staged eleven well-received performances of Maskarade from March to May 2015. The Royal Danish Opera's schedule for 2015 includes performances of a chamber version of the opera in three other locations in Denmark from mid-July to early September. The Maskarade Overture has been included in the first of Britain's Promenade Concerts on 17 July 2015.