Peer Gynt Tickets

Peer Gynt
A play Peer Gynt, which was initially published on November 14, 1867, is written by a Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen. The play was staged for the first time in Oslo on February 24 1876, while the music of the play was composed by Edvard Grieg. The play became a major success soon after it was published and its first edition that comprised of 1250 was sold with in few days, which is why 2000 more copies of the play were published just after 14 days. Peer Gynt was followed by another famous play by Henrik called Brand.

The fame of his previous work increased the sales of Peer Gynt even more. Henrik's Peer Gynt was mainly intended to be a drama rather than a stage act, which is why Peer Gynt was written in verse. Apart from the plot and all, one of the main aspects of Peer Gynt's fame was also Edward's In the Hall of the Mountain King, which was a music number by him. Main focus of the play lies with Peer finding his own identity and the choices that he should or shouldn't make. The main problem that Peer faces is due to his inefficiency of staying focused and controlled against the world that want him to be like that. The main question that Peer has on his mind is what he asks in the end that is What is to be one self. In order to find as answer to this, in one scene he also compares him self with an onion that have nothing in core and is just a bunch of layers. Despite of his unpredictable outer identity, he still keeps to maintain his inner identity to which he refers to as Gyntish, I.

The incidental music of the play was composed by Edvard Grieg after Henrik asked him to do so. It was the sound blend Henrik's story telling, and Grieg's indescribable music that made Peer Gynt an all time classic. One of the major parts of the Peer Gynt's success was played by the music that was composed by Grieg. Out of the incidental music that he gave for this play, he took two sets of four pieces out, which soon became and even now is popular concert music.

1907 saw the very first U.S production of Peer Gynt that starred Richard Mansfield in his last performance of his life before his sudden death. The play went to Broadway in 1923, in a Theatre Guild Production in which the lead role was played by Joseph Schildkraut. Next time Peer Gynt came to Broadway was in 1951, starring John Garfield whose utmost desire was to star in a Broadway production, but unfortunately the production didn't come out as it was planned and went unsuccessful.

Christopher Plummer with his desire of starring in a full fledged production of the play, starred in the concert version of the play of his own in 1993, along with Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Hartford Connecticut. It was basically more of a concert sort of play, not a proper theoretical kind, which was narrated by Plummer himself. The concert version of the play also contained Grieg's original incidental music that he composed for the play, along with choir and vocal parts. This concert version by Plummer was staged once again in 1995.