Peer Gynt

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For other uses, see Peer Gynt (disambiguation).

Peer Gynt is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen and is perhaps his best-known. It was written in 1867, and first performed in Oslo (then called Christiania) on 24 February 1876, with incidental music by the composer Edvard Grieg. Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt while traveling in Rome, on Ischia and in Sorrento. It was first published on November 14, 1867, in Copenhagen. The first edition comprised 1,250 copies. It was followed by a re-print of 2,000 copies after 14 days. The large sales were mostly due to the success of Ibsen's previous play, Brand. Unlike Ibsen's other later plays, Peer Gynt is written in verse. This is because it was originally intended to be a written drama, not for stage performance. Difficulties due to rapid and frequent change of scene (including an entire act in pitch darkness) render the play troublesome to perform. It is also unlike Ibsen's later plays in that it is a fantasy rather than a realistic tragedy.

Peer Gynt can be considered as a bittersweet play about a Norwegian anti-hero. Peer Gynt is the son of the once-highly-regarded Jon Gynt. Jon Gynt had become a drunkard and lost all his money. This left Peer and his mother Åse to live in poverty. Peer wants to restore the honour and wealth his father had lost, but he gets lost in daydreams, and wanders around doing mostly nothing. He is involved in a fight and later becomes an outlaw. He then flees from the parish. During his flight he meets three amorous dairy-maids who are waiting to be courted by trolls. Later he comes across a woman clad in green who is the daughter of the troll mountain king, whom he is expected to marry since she has had an illigitimate child by Peer (Mirroring Ibsen's own struggles with the child he had out of wedlock. One of the most interesting characters is the Bøyg; a creature who has no real description.

Solveig, whom Peer met at a wedding and with whom he fell in love, comes to his cabin in the forest to live with him, but in time he leaves her and goes on with his travels. He is away for many years, taking part in various occupations and playing various roles including that of a businessman engaged in enterprises on the coast of Morocco. He wanders through the desert, passes the Memnon and the Sphinx. He also becomes a Bedouin chief and a prophet. He tries to seduce Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin, and ends up confined in a madhouse in Cairo. There he is hailed as an emperor. Finally, on his way home as an old man, he is shipwrecked. Among those on board he has met the Strange Passenger, considered by some scholars to be the ghost of Lord Byron. The Strange Passenger wants to make use of Peer's corpse to find out where dreams have their seat.

Back home in Norway, Peer Gynt attends a peasant funeral, and an auction, where he offers for sale everything from his earlier life. Peer meets the Button-moulder, who maintains that Peer's soul must be melted down with other faulty goods unless he can explain when and where in life he has been "himself", and a character named the Lean One (who is probably the Devil), who believes he cannot be accounted a real sinner who can be sent to hell.

Peer, in great despair, finally reaches Solveig. She had been waiting for him in the cabin ever since he left. She tells him that he has always been himself in her belief, hope and love. With her love, Peer finds redemption and contentment at long last.

Grieg's music

Ibsen asked Edvard Grieg to compose incidental music for the play. As Ibsen's long play is quite an undertaking to put on stage (it was soon rather read than staged), and since Grieg's incidental music had an ineffable quality that destined it to become an all-time classic, this music started to lead a life of its own: Grieg extracted two suites of four pieces each from the incidental music (Opus 46 and Opus 55), which became very popular as concert music. Only one of the sung parts of the incidental music ended up in these suites (the last part of 2nd suite, Solveig's Song, the solo part now rather played by violin than sung).

Later the music of these suites, especially the Morgenstemning ("Morning Mood") starting the first suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King, and the string lament Aase's Death reappeared in numerous arrangements, soundtracks, etc.

Recent Productions

In 2006, Robert Wilson staged a co-production revival with both the National Theater of Bergen and the Norwegian Theatre of Oslo, Norway. Ann-Christin Rommen directed the actors in Norwegian (with English subtitles). This acclaimed production mixed both Wilson's mimimalist (yet constantly moving) stage designs with fantastic technological effects to bring out the play's expansive potential. Furthermore they utilized state-of-the-art microphones, sound systems, and recorded accoustic and electronic music to bring clarity to the complex and shifting action and dialogue. From April 11 through the 16th, they performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s Howard Gilman Opera House. Template:Wikiquote Template:Wikisourcede:Peer Gynt eo:Peer Gynt fr:Peer Gynt it:Peer Gynt he:פר גינט nl:Peer Gynt ja:ペール・ギュント no:Peer Gynt pl:Peer Gynt (dramat) sv:Peer Gynt