DACOCD 507 [DDD]

Ebbe Hamerik The Travelling Mate (Rejsekammeraten) A fairy-tale opera in 4 acts, adapted from the short story by Hans Christian Andersen. Libretto by Karl Nielsen

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1. Act 1, Scene 1: Johannes's father's death-bed 6:27
2. Act 1, Scene 2: At the graveside 5:01
3. Act 1, Scene 3: In church. Night 9:42 - Sound bite: MP3
4. Act 2, Scene 4: On a forest path as day dawns 6:48
5. Act 2, Scene 5: The top of the mountain 8:44
6. Act 3, Scene 6: At the castle 8:14
7. Act 3, Scene 7: In the great hall 6:20
8. Act 4, Scene 9 The great hall 12:28
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   Johannes	Ole Hedegaard
   His father	Per Johansen
   A gravedigger	Lars Stendevad
   1st Bad man (body snatcher)	Hilmar Olsen
   2nd Bad man (body snatcher)	Per Johansen
   The travelling companion	Lars Waage
   The king	Erik Keiling
   The princess	Edith Guillaume
   An old woman	Birgit Bastian
   A suitor	Per Johansen
   The executioner	Per Johansen
   4 voices	Jørn Tell, Benni Hans Andersen, Børge Nielsen, Bent Nørgaard
   Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester (Danish Philharmonic Orchestra - South Jutland)

    
   
9. Sommer (Summer) for baritone and orchestra 10:38
   Poul Elming, Baryton

SYNOPSIS In Act 1 Johannes hears the voices of good and evil by his father's death-bed and at his graveside. Johannes makes his existential choice when he spends his inheritance to buy a corpse back from a pair of body snatchers. In Act II he meets the travelling companion. who later proves to he the dead man whose corpse he liberated, and who heals an injured woman with a miraculous salve. In return, she gives the travelling companion her axe, which he uses later on to chop off the Troll's head. From a mountain top Johannes hears the distant voice of a woman; he is drawn by it. Act III is set at the palace; Johannes meets the king, who has just been humiliated by his daughter for begging for the life of a suitor she has decided to have hanged. The king shows Johannes the garden where the corpses of rejected suitors are hanging in the trees, and tells him this is the penalty, for guessing wrongly, what the princess is thinking about. Nevertheless. Johannes asks the princess for her hand. He is told to come back the next day. In the following scene the servants and the executioner prepare for the princess to proclaim the death sentence on Johannes. However, Johannes shocks her by, guessing what she is thinking about. Act IV begins with a scene omitted from this recording in which the princess goes to see the troll in his mountain and learn that she is to think about the troll's head when Johannes comes the next day. The servants prepare the palace for a feast in the hope that Johannes will guess correctly again. When he is to reply, the travelling companion hands him a handkerchief. from which the troll's severed head tumbles. The princess surrenders to Johannes in a fury. Once the travelling companion has rubbed the miraculous salve on her forehead her hatred for Johannes turns to love. Mogens Andersen