Amal Choucri Catta discovers Edvard Grieg in Giza Last week, audiences were treated to two phenomenal performances of Henrik Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt, with music by Edvard Grieg, staged at the Sound and Light Theatre of the Giza plateau to mark Ibsen Year. Around 90 musicians from Cairo Symphony Orchestra, 70 members of the Cairene A Capella choir, six soloists from the Norwegian National Opera, six main actors and 18 performers from Norway, as well as excellent sound and light systems and some marvelous singing, dancing and acting were all loudly hailed by the spectators. Theatrical and musical performances are hardly new to the Sound and Light Theatre, though seldom has such splendid staging been seen, with three different stages, one harbouring musicians, choir and soloists as well as the Sphinx, given voice by Egyptian actor Mohamed Wafik. Bentein Baardson, the artistic and executive director of Ibsen Year as well as the director of Peer Gynt in Giza, says the "performances mark the transition from Ibsen to the Grieg Year" -- the former died in 1906 and the latter a year later -- adding that "Grieg's musical material determined the choices that had to be made: almost all of Grieg's Gynt compositions are included, although some of the material has been used in a context different than the composer originally intended." Ibsen's five-act verse drama Peer Gynt was written as a dramatic poem in 1867. Only after its completion did Ibsen set about arranging it for the stage. In 1874, Edvard Grieg received a letter from Ibsen: "A third edition of Peer Gynt is to appear shortly", Ibsen wrote, "and I intend to arrange it for stage performances. Will you compose the music required for this?" Grieg agreed, composing 23 items of incidental music (Opus 23) and, at a later date, two orchestral suites: No. 1 of Opus 46, comprising four sequences: "Morning", "Death of Aase", "Anitra's Dance" and "In the Hall of the Mountain King", and No. 2 of Opus 55, comprising four additional sequences: "Abduction of the Bride and Ingrid's Lament", "Arabian Dance", "Peer Gynt's Homecoming" and "Solveig's Song". Programmes often include additional items, among them the "Wedding March, Solveig's Cradle Song and the Prelude and Dance of the Mountain king's Daughter". Baardson opted to delve into Grieg's Opus 23 as he concentrated on Peer Gynt's meeting with the Sphinx. Conducted masterfully by Christian Eggen from Norway, the orchestra opened vivaciously with music from "At the Wedding" before suddenly turning silent as the Sphinx asks the crucial question, "Who art thou?" The answer is lost when the lively tunes of a fiddler resound and the wedding guests arrive. Per Saemund Bjorkum is a young performer with a special talent: the tunes of his fiddle are happy, folkloric sequences with clear pizzicati and pure sound vibrations, though he never stops dancing and moving about while playing melodies reminiscent of sleigh-rides and deer and snowy mountain-tops. His music stops and he leaves with the dancers. The orchestra slowly starts a pianissimo of "Solveig's Song", a meditative tune evoking Solveig's meeting with Peer, before delving into merrier wedding melodies followed by the lower, dramatic keys of Ingrid's lament. She is the bride Peer Gynt has abducted and then abandoned. At times the music seems to vanish into the background as actors and singers command the stage. The entire venture made great demands on all concerned and it is no small feat Eggen succeeded in leading singers, actors, musicians and performers through the musical drama. The audience was spellbound. Born in 1843 in Bergen, Edvard Grieg had his early tuition from his mother, a gifted pianist by the name Gesine née Harderup, daughter of the local governor who had studied the piano in Hamburg and went on to enjoy a successful career as a chamber player and as concerto soloist with the Bergen philharmonic. Edvard began piano lessons at six and was soon improvising, showing an early relish for the colours that were to be a hallmark of his mature music. "I am sure my music has a taste of codfish about it", he explained; "my material has been dawn from the whole of the surroundings in Bergen. Its natural beauty, the life of its people, the city's achievements... have been an inspiration to me." Grieg was also a keen mountaineer and on one trek took with him a local musician who played the hardanger fiddle, the Norwegian folk instrument used by Bjorkum on the Giza plateau. Composer, conductor and pianist, Grieg wrote a lot of incidental music, pieces for the piano, chamber and orchestral music and songs. His music is poetic, superbly fashioned and, in the songs, quite passionate, though at times it can be somewhat obscure and of a contrasting quality, mingling major and minor keys. "Death of Aase", concluding the scene of Gynt 's third act, is presented by muted strings and is all the more moving for its concentration on a single rhythmic pattern, while "Anitra's Dance" is an exotic Mazurka for muted strings and triangle. Peer Gynt's "return home" is, on the other hand, an agitated allegro, and the orchestra was brilliant in its depiction of the fury of the elements: wild dissonances, savage strokes of strings, whistling woods and brass mingled with furious beats of frantic percussion evocative of Peer Gynt's tormented soul. As the music rises in rolling waves of sound, Peer Gynt is filled with remorse and regret. In a melodious diminuendo he returns to his long lost love, Solveig, the sweetheart of his youth who never stopped waiting for him. As she opens her arms to receive him, the most beautiful of melodies rises from the sandy slopes surrounding the pyramids. They are tunes that touch the heart, expressing intimacy and harmony, suffering and sorrow in the minor keys, while soaring to ecstasy and exuberance in the major keys. Peer Gynt has found peace at last as he lies in Solveig's arms, while the orchestra and the soprano meditatively close the performance with Solveig's beautifully sung "Cradle Song". The sopranos were fabulous and the orchestra was in excellent form. Special thanks must go to director Baardson and maestro Eggen who turned the spectacle into an event and left those lucky enough to attend hoping that next year Norway and Egypt will again collaborate to mark the centenary of Edvard Grieg's death.
