Fanal

“I männer över lag och rätt”

March 4, 1935: Stockholm

Unspecified orchestra, cond. Nils Grevillius

Naxos 8.110722

Act 3: Finale

January 29, 1934: Stockholm, Royal Opera House

Jussi Björling (Martin Skarp), Helga Görlin (Rosamund) Joel Berglund

(Jost), Gösta Bäckelin (Vassal), Leon Björker (Duke); Royal Swedish Opera

Chorus, Royal Court Orchestra, cond. Nils Grevillius

Bluebell ABCD 103

In the first decade of his operatic career Björling sang five contemporary Swedish theatrical works: Edvin Znieder's Bellman, Natanael Berg's Engelbrekt, Hilding Rosenberg's Resa till Amerika, Ture Rangström's Kronbruden, and Kurt Atterberg's Fanal. The last of these, a ballad-style drama based on an old Rhenish legend as retold by Heinrich Heine (Der Schelm von Bergen), proved popular with 1930s audiences: after the the world premiere in Stockholm on January 27, 1934, Björling performed it on twenty-two other occasions over the subsequent five seasons. Atterberg, who was forty-seven in 1934 and a well-established figure in Swedish musical life (active also as a critic and conductor), had set to music a German libretto by Ignaz Michael Welleminsky and Oscar Ritter. The world premiere, however, was given in Swedish, as were all operas in Stockholm at that time (although guest artists from abroad often sang their parts in the original language).