Baldurs draumar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baldurs draumar (Baldur's Dreams) is the name of a ballet by the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt.
The story in the ballet is heavily based on the eddaic poem "Baldrs draumar", but is rewritten to be more easily understand by the audience. It is also written in a more racist way than the original. For example: In the original version of the myth, it was Loki who gave Hod the arrow of mistletoe, but in the ballet it is a "dark and horrible" Jotne.
The ballet premiered as a purely musical piece in Oslo in 1938, with over 100 musicians, and 12 specially made drums. It was one of the biggest musical events of the time. In a letter to the conductor, Geirr Tveitt wrote "Syt for at ingen jøder sitt mellom musikarane" (make sure no Jews are sitting amongst the musicians"). As well as all the instruments, three singing voices, a hardanger-fiddle and a piano contribute to the play, although the piano and hardanger-fiddle is very little used.
