Maskarade

Operas by Carl Nielsen
Operas Saul og David (1902) Maskarade (1906)

Maskarade (Masquerade) is an opera in three acts by Carl Nielsen to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg.

Announcement of plans to turn Holberg’s classical comedy into an opera buffa met with dismay in Danish literary circles, but the opera quickly gained popularity, surpassing that of the play itself. Nielsen was not entirely satisfied with the opera, 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 overture is one of Nielsen's most widely performed works at concerts in Europe and North America.

Performance history

The first performance was at Det Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen, 11 November 1906. The United States premiere was conducted by Igor Buketoff, with St Paul Opera, Minnesota and the first reported New York performance was by the Bronx Opera Company in 1983.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast 11 November 1906 (Conductor: Carl Nielsen)
Jeronimus, a burgher of Copenhagen	bass baritone	Karl Mantzius
Magdelone, wife to Jeronimus	alto	Johanna Neijendam
Leander, son to Jeronimus	tenor	Hans Kjerulf
Henrik, valet to Leander	baritone	Helge Nissen
Arv, servant to Jeronimus	tenor	Lars Knudsen
Leonard, a gentlemen from Slagelse	bass baritone	Peter Jerndorf
Leonora, daughter to Leonard	soprano	Emilie Ulrich/Ingebord Norregaard-Hansen
Pernille, maid to Leonora	mezzo-soprano	Ida Møller/Margrethe Lindrop
A Mask Vendor	baritone
A Doorman at the Masquerade	bass
A Tutor	bass
A Night Watchman	bass
The Master of the Masquerade	bass	Albert Petersen
Masqueraders, Students, Girls, Officers

Synopsis

Time: Spring 1723

Place: Copenhagen

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 a neighbor’s daughter. Things get complicated when Leonard, the neighbor whose daughter is the other part of this arrangement, comes complaining to Leander’s father that his daughter 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.

Cultural significance

Maskarade has become something like the Danish national opera. The masquerade of the title is a place where the characters can leave behind the oppressed lives they lead in a rigid society; it represents liberty and the Enlightenment, and even more, perhaps, a sense of joie de vivre in a land where weather (and duty) is often cold and gloomy. The patriarch Jeronimus, Leander’s father, rails against the masquerade and all it represents; but a thread of the plot explores how all his authority and his antipathy toward the masquerade fail to prevent his son’s (not to mention his own) progress toward freedom and happiness. The final scene of the opera is colored by a bitter-sweet recognition of human mortality, and the urgent importance of finding happiness to brighten it.

References

Notes

Sources

• Notes and libretto accompanying the 1998 Decca recording 460 227-2.
• Warrack, John and West, Ewan, The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, (1992) ISBN 0-19-869164-5

External links

• Seckerson, Edward, “Drunk with Pleasure - Nielsen's Maskarade at Covent Garden",The Independent (London), 21 September 2005, at Andante.com
• The Carl Nielsen Society :
• Discography
• Account of the opera’s composition