Asle and Alida / Trailer

Two of contemporary Nordic culture’s greatest talents meet for an internationally significant world premiere.

Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature, Jon Fosse needs little introduction in the Norway where he was born and made his career - which started with studies at the university in Bergen. Fosse is one of Norway’s most respected literary figures, whose work Trilogy (2007-2014) is a set of three novellas which poignantly evoke the powerful and mysterious love between the teenagers Asle and Alida.

Seeking comfort in music and each other, they sail to the town of Bjørgvin, where they hope to find sanctuary from a harsh world. The young fiddle player and his pregnant girlfriend meet nothing but closed doors and make increasingly dangerous choices to survive.

Danish composer Bent Sørensen, laureate of the so-called Nobel Prize for Composition, the Grawemeyer Award, writes haunting, beautiful music that has been described as "constantly pulled between the magnetic poles of warm, Romantic tonality and rich atonality."

Bent Sørensen says: "For me, Asle og Alida is an opera about the three great biblical concepts: faith, hope, and love – and, above all, the fusion of these three. Faith in hope, hope for love, and, as always, the greatest of these is love.In Asle and Alida’s case, love transcends death – death does not part them. The music seeks to capture both the beauty and the dread inherent in the struggle for love."

The timeless and touching story is directed by Fosse-specialist Sofia Adrian Jupither.

ASLE AND ALIDA
Opera in two acts
World premiere

Bent Sørensen / Music
Jon Fosse / Libretto
based on The Trilogy (Trilogien) by Jon Fosse

CREATIVE TEAM
Johannes Gustavsson / Conductor
Sofia Adrian Jupither / Stage director
Erlend Birkeland / Set designer
Maria Geber / Costume designer
Ellen Ruge / Lighting designer
Emi Stahl / Video designer
Håkon Matti Skrede / Chorus master

CAST
Wiktor Sundqvist / Asle
Louise McClelland Jacobsen / Alida
Johannes Weisser / The Older Man
Randi Stene / The Older Woman
Christina Jønsi / The Younger Woman
Frank Kjosås / Åsleik
Alma Kraggerud / Fiddle player

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Edvard Grieg Choir

World premiere in Grieghallen in Bergen Saturday 29 March 2025
Also performed 31 March, 2 and 4 April

Performed in Norwegian, surtitles in Norwegian and English
Duration: Approx. 2 hours and 15 minutes including 30 minutes interval after act 1

Introduction (in Norwegian) by Gunnar Danbolt one hour before the opera starts

A new production by Bergen National Opera, in collaboration with the Royal Danish Theatre (Det Kongelige Teater) in Copenhagen.
Presented by Bergen National Opera in collaboration with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edvard Grieg Choirs

After the world premiere here in Bergen, Asle and Alida will be performed in Copenhagen in the period May 21 – June 6 (2025)

Video: Max Thillaye