The name Peer Gynt immediately brings to mind the beautiful orchestral suites by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. The song Morning Mood is one of the work’s indelible evergreens. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen presents the complete theatre music, including solo songs and choral pieces, that Grieg wrote for the satirical play by his compatriot Henrik Ibsen. We follow the winding paths of the fantasist Peer, collector of adventures and experiences. He avoids the confrontation with himself and others, and flees into new identities. ‘The Gyntish Self’, according to Peer, ‘is the host of wishes, appetites, desires, lusts without limits.’ At the end of a life full of lies and selfishness, he must conclude that he is ‘nobody’. Director Tom Goossens, known at OBV for his exuberant versions of L’Heure espagnole, Le nozze di Figaro and Die Fledermaus, brings together Ibsen’s narrative and Grieg’s music to create a compelling new whole.
