The Opera “HULDA” produced in Norway

Maria Bjornson’s great-grandfather was Bjornstjerne Bornson, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1903. He was a dramatist, novelist, and poet, as well as a political leader and champion of Norway’s independence from Sweden. His play Hulda is a passionate tale of love, murder, lust, and revenge centering upon the heroine (or antiheroine, depending on one’s point of view) Hulda. The action is set in the 11th century in Norway.

Hulda was made into an opera with music by César Franck, a fact largely unknown for more than a century. In the early 2000s the score was discovered by Robert Temple in Paris, and now more than a quarter of a century later, a full scale performance by 182 cast and crew has opened in Lillehammer, Norway. The producer is Maria Bjornson’s second cousin, Olemic Thommessen, a retired politician who for five years was the President of the Norwegian Parliament. He arranged for the French libretto to be translated into Norewegian. He is President of the Maria Bjornson Foundation of Norway.

The opening night was April 5 to a full house and has received a rapturous reception by everyone. Representatives of the Belgium Embassy attended, in honour of the composer, who was a Belgian born in Liège. The opera is expected to enter permanently into the Norwegian opera repertoire and to be produced widely in other countries in coming years. The performance was abridged only in the sense that 40 minutes of ballet interludes were removed, which means that a future performance can make 40 minutes more of Franck’s music available. The score called for a chorus of 120, whereas a reduced chorus of 66 has been used for this production. The future therefore has much more to hold for those who love César Franck’s music and also those who love ballet.

This production was subsidised by royalties earned by Maria Bjornson from Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately, Maria’s early death meant that she never knew of the existence of Hulda, which has now done so much to raise Maria’s profile in the land of her father’s family, where she herself is now becoming a Norwegian heroine.