The Lizard (Sibelius)
Incidental music by Jean Sibelius / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Lizard (in Swedish: Ödlan), Op. 8, is a theatre score for string ensemble—comprising six to nine musicians—by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius; he wrote the music in 1909 to accompany the Finnish author Mikael Lybeck's 1908 three-act, Symbolist play (skådespel) of the same name. The story, which takes place at the Eyringe family estate, is a romantic triangle: Alban, an overly-sensitive nobleman with an artist's soul, is engaged to Elisiv, the tender and virtuous nurse who had cared for his late father; however, he struggles to resist the carnal advances of his older cousin Adla (her name is a near homonym for ödla, the Swedish word for lizard), a cunning temptress whose plot to seduce him turns lethal. Sibelius contributed music for two scenes in Act II: Tableau 1, in which Alban plays his violin at the family burial chapel, hoping to summon his deceased relatives; and Tableau 3, in which Elisiv during a fever dream hears "strange" music and, later with three Eyringe ghosts, ponders the thin line between life and death.
The Lizard | |
---|---|
Incidental music by Jean Sibelius | |
Native name | Ödlan |
Opus | 8 |
Text | Ödlan by Mikael Lybeck |
Composed | 1909 |
Publisher | Fazer (1997) |
Duration | Approx. 17 mins. |
Premiere | |
Date | 6 April 1910 (1910-04-06) |
Location | |
Conductor | Jean Sibelius |
The play premiered on 6 April 1910 at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki; Gustaf Molander and Karin Molander created the roles of Alban and Elisiv, respectively, while the Swedish actress Valborg Hansson [sv] guest starred as Adla. During Act II, Sibelius conducted the chamber ensemble, which for effect he positioned behind the stage. The critics praised Sibelius's music as having fit the mood of the play well. Nevertheless, the production folded after just six performances, and The Lizard was never revived in Sibelius's lifetime. Although it was Sibelius's habit to excerpt suites from his theatre scores (as he had with, for example, King Christian II in 1898, Pelléas et Mélisande in 1905, Belshazzar's Feast in 1907, and Swanwhite in 1908), he never did so with The Lizard. Scholars speculate that this is because the music is dependent on the play's action.
The composer thought highly of his contribution to The Lizard, describing it to his patron and confidant Axel Carpelan [fi] as "one of the most exquisite works I have written". Stylistically, Sibelius deploys chromaticism to achieve a darkly-colored and dream-like palette. The Lizard comes from Sibelius's "crisis period" (1908–1912) and is therefore a 'psychological' work comparable to the string quartet Voces intimae (1909) and the Fourth Symphony (1911).
In the intervening decades, The Lizard has entered neither the Finnish nor the international repertories, and its significance is therefore primarily as a historical curiosity: Sibelius's lone theatre score for chamber ensemble. Accordingly, it has been recorded only a few times, with Juha Kangas [fi] and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra having made the world premiere studio recording in 1994. A typical performance lasts about 17 minutes.