Sigwardt Aspestrand (1856 - 1941)

[tpaloj]

Sigwardt Aspestrand   (1856 Aremark – 1941 Oslo)


Sigwardt Aspestrand was a norwegian opera composer.

He studied violin with Gudbrand Bøhn in Kristiania and at the age of 24 became a student at the Leipzig Conservatory of Music, later at the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin (under Joseph Joachim). He was forced to abandon violin playing due to a hand injury.

He lived in Germany until 1910, where in addition to chamber music he composed several operas. The opera "Seemansbraut" was succesfully performed at the court theaters in Gotha (in 1894) and Coburg and at the National Theatre in Kristiania in 1907.

Operas

Robin Hood  (unfinished?)
Die Seemansbraut  (opera in three Acts)
Der Recke von Lyrskovsheid  (grand opera in four Acts)
Im Goetheszimmer  (burlesque in one Act)
Freyas Alter  (comic opera in three Acts)
Die Wette  (Fairytale opera in three Acts)
Der Kuss auf Sicht  (comic opera in one Act)
Pervonte oder die Wünsche  (comic opera in three Acts)



Not much biographical information on Aspestrand is found online. More info on his chamber music would be welcome. All manuscripts related to his operas have been digitized by the Norwegian National Library and can be browsed in their digital collections. I was not able to find years of composition for any of his works. From what I could find, his only published score is the overture to Der Recke von Lyrskovsheid (edited and published posthumously), which has been performed but unfortunately not recorded. It's a very good overture, actually!

For a demonstration of his music, I chose to transcribe his overture to Pervonte in Noteperformer (honestly, I just found the name funny – who would call their opera something like that?) The story of the opera is based on an old fairytale of a half-wit marrying a princess, so we can expect the music not to take itself too seriously. What we get is a very lively romp, confidently and straightforwardly orchestrated, some guaranteed melodic earworms, a grotesque waltz in the middle and all around good Offenbachian humour.

https://youtu.be/SKfnYvCOCQU

[Wheesht]

A lively romp is exactly right, I enjoyed that, thanks. According to Norges Musikk Historie in five volumes (1999), Aspestrand wrote ten operas and none of them apart from from Die Seemannsbraut was ever performed.

[semloh]

Thanks, tpaloj. Sounds to me like a touch of Merrie England.