Showing results by author "Henrik Ibsen"

Haunting memories of the sins of the father and Oswald's heredity are the moving themes of this drama

A new recording of Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece, starring Calista Flockhart. Nora Helmer has everything a young housewife could want: beautiful children, an adoring husband, and a bright future. But when a carelessly buried secret rises from the past, Nora’s well-calibrated domestic ideal starts to crumble. Ibsen’s play is as fresh today as it was when it first stormed the stages of 19th-century Europe.

Hedda Gabler, the daughter of a deceased General, marries dull George Tesman and foresees a life of middle class tedium stretching ahead when they return from their honeymoon. Increasingly, she is drawn into the clutches of her admirer, Judge Brack, who seeks to establish a ménage a trois. Then the brilliant but dissolute Eilert Lovborg, a former flame, arrives to rival her husband for an academic post.

Controversy and hidden pasts are suddenly and painfully exposed as wealthy widow Mrs Alving prepares to open a new orphanage in memory of her husband. Her treasured son Oswald’s return from Paris and her relationship with old friend Pastor Manders are no longer the source of joy they once were, as secrets are turned into a frightening and desperate reality.

A Doll's House is a three-act play written by Norway's Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 21, 1879. The play is set in a Norwegian town circa 1879. A Doll's House was based on the life of Laura Kieler, a good friend of Ibsen. Much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband, Victor. Similar to the events in the play, Laura signed an illegal loan to save her husband. She wanted the money to find a cure for her husband's tuberculosis.

Now, for the first time in audio, Blackstone presents seven great plays in one volume: Euripides' Medea, Shakespeare's The Tempest, Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, Dumas' Camille, Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Shaw's Arms and the Man, and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. These productions illustrate the development of European drama from ancient times to the threshold of the modern theater.

The idealistic son of a wealthy businessman seeks to expose his father's duplicity and to free his childhood friend from the lies on which his happy home life is based. When skeletons are brought out of the closet, the foundations of the Ekdal family are torn apart - with drastic consequences.

When a small town relies on tourists flocking to its baths, will a report of dangerously polluted waters be enough to shut them down? Henrik Ibsen weighs the cost of public health versus a town’s livelihood in An Enemy of the People. Adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.

Dr. Stockman is ridiculed and persecuted by the town's politicians and townspeople for telling the truth about the town's polluted public baths. This theme of safety warnings and scientific data being ignored for political and economic gain can still be seen almost daily in today's news.

Rosmersholm is a play surrounding the deep and intense political and cultural change in Norway in the middle of the 1880s, a period during which the traditional ruling class were forced to relinquish their right to impose their ideals on the rest of society. We follow Johannes Rosmer, a pastor who has resigned from his position; Rebecca West, a woman who sees Rosmer's potential and believes she can help him to realize his dream of creating a world of "happy, noble people"; and Headmaster Kroll, Rosmer's former best friend.

Nora, a banker's pampered and petted wife, forges a signature to obtain money for her ailing husband. The play's theme, touting a woman's independence, shocked audiences at the time of its premiere.

Hedda Gabler is one of the most interesting and intricate figures to appear on stage. Her boredom with her mariage and jealousy of her former lover set off a chain of events that result in an untimely death. Oh, but the deceased did "die beautifully"!

This book contains two plays by Henrik Ibsen. Norma is a satirical opera designed as a dramatic parody of Vincenzo Bellini's opera Norma, in which the characters are portrayed as central figures in the political life of contemporary Norway. St. John's Night is a fairy-tale comedy that takes place during a midsummer feast on a farm in Telemark. It is inspired by many sources, most notably A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, and features many of the same themes.

The Wild Duck (Vilanden) is a tragedy with comic episodes. Ibsen himself characterized the play as a tragicomedy. It depicts ordinary life realistically instead of romantically and sentimentally, a revolutionary concept in Ibsen's time. The play is now generally acknowledged as one of Ibsen's supreme accomplishments.  

Often considered to be Ibsen's most popular play in his lifetime, The League of Youth caused fighting in the streets, with conservatives claiming it was an attack on their party and liberals claiming it was an attack on theirs! A thought-provoking comedy that's sure to feel shockingly familiar. Unusually for Ibsen, this play has a lot of humour and a more-or-less happy ending.

Ein Nussknacker liegt an Weihnachten für Marie auf dem Gabentisch. Mitten in der Nacht erwacht die Holzpuppe zum Leben, denn der Nussknacker hat noch eine alte Rechnung mit dem Mausekönig offen. Ein turbulenter Kampf bricht los. Peter Tschaikowski (1840-1893) war ein russischer Komponist, der seit seinem fünften Lebensjahr Klavier spielte und zunächst in St. Petersburg als Beamter arbeitete. Anton Rubinstein förderte sein Musikstudium und fortan ging Tschaikowskis Musik um die Welt.

Dans cette maison où la femme est et n'est qu'une poupée, les hommes sont des pantins, veules et pleutres. Sans doute Nora incarne-t-elle une sorte de moment auroral du féminisme, alors qu'être, c'est sortir, partir. Et Ibsen, grâce à ce chef-d'œuvre, accède au panthéon de la littérature mondiale. Mais si sa poupée se met, sinon à vivre, du moins à le vouloir, au point de bousculer au passage l'alibi de l'instinct maternel, c'est qu'autour d'elle les hommes se meurent.

Peer Gynt är ett äventyrsdrama, skrivet med stor humor och mycket ironi på fyndig fri vers med ett djärvt folkligt språk. Peer Gynt är ett av Ibsens populäraste verk. Det kombinerar prosans äventyrsberättelse, poesins versspråk och dramats dialog och handling. Dramat är mycket längre än normalt för dramer, men har regelbundet satts upp i förkortad form; första gången 1876 med Griegs senare så välkända musik.

Det er i Vildanden, vi finder det verdensberømte Ibsen-citat: "Tager De livsløgnen fra et gennemsnitsmenneske, så tager De lykken fra ham med det samme." - (Vildanden, 5. akt). Og dette citat angiver hovedtemaet i Vildanden. Fotografen Hjalmar Ekdal lever tilfreds med sin kone Gina, datteren Hedvig og sin gamle far.

Ett dockhem är ett av Ibsens mest lästa och uppsatta dramer. Dramat utspelar sig i ett av Köpenhamns välbärgade hem, där den vackra Nora spelar rollen som perfekt hustru och mor. Men allt är inte som det ser ut vid första anblicken. Noras inre föreställningar och förväntningar harmonerar inte med omvärldens realiteter, och hon tvingas att ta upp kampen med livslögnen vid sitt möte med juristen Krogstad, som hotar hennes annars bekymmerslösa tillvaro.