Operaorkestret: Sibelius/Grieg at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra is the mainstay of our activities. Without music, there can be no opera – and no dance. The orchestra’s concert series has been a great success, and become an important part of Oslo’s music scene. When the musicians are lifted out of the pit and onto the stage, becoming the evening’s leading performers and only point of focus, they are able to display their talent in an entirely different way than during our ballet and opera productions. Our opera house has also proven to be a fantastic concert hall, with world-class acoustics.

This season we are particularly proud to present the fruits of the collaboration with our new Musical Director, Karl-Heinz Steffens. In two concerts he will conduct the orchestra in the Main House – with works spanning from Mozart to Sibelius and Grieg. Audiences will also be able to experience his direction of three opera productions, as well as a concert version of Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Sibelius/Grieg

“Getting to know a new orchestra is a long process, but sometimes you immediately know that you’d like to return to a place. When I was here last year to conduct Mahler’s seventh symphony, I had a good feeling right from the start,” says our new Musical Director Karl-Heinz Steffens. He will now take to the podium to conduct the Norwegian National Orchestra once again – for the first time as Musical Director – with a performance of Sibelius’s colourful second symphony and Grieg’s lively Norwegian Dances and selected songs.

Jean Sibelius started work on his second symphony in the winter of 1901, when he was travelling in Italy and had just experienced great success with his work Finlandia. The symphony was completed the following year, with the composer describing it as “a confession of the soul”. From the atmospheric opening of the first movement, the listener is drawn deep into the Finnish forest, with its combination of light and dark colours. Here, the composer’s patriotism is carved out to a greater extent than in Finlandia, and Sibelius moves into a more open, but also darker, landscape.


Edvard Grieg Norwegian Dances, op. 35, selected songs Jean Sibelius Symphony no. 2 in D major, op. 43 Artists The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Karl-Heinz Steffens/conductor