In celebration of 2012 as the Year of August Strindberg – the prolific Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter – the Nordic Chamber Opera stages his The Confession of a Fool (1893). Performed as an opera in one act, this work originally was one of Strindberg’s autobiographical novels and tells his version of his unhappy, but passionate first marriage to Siri von Essen, the Swedish-speaking Finnish noblewoman and actress.
$15 ($10 ASF Members)

The world première of The Confession of a Fool, with music by Inger Wikström and text by August Strindberg, took place in 2002 at the Vasa Theatre in collaboration with the Royal Opera in Stockholm. It was also performed in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts 2006.

About the Nordic Chamber Opera:
Founded in 1980 by Swedish conductor, composer, and pianist Inger Wikström, the Nordic Chamber Opera is comprised of accomplished, young opera stars, accompanied by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, which includes musicians from the Royal Opera in Stockholm.

The Nordic Chamber Opera made its debut in 1980 at Confidencen (the Ulriksdal Palace Theatre), performing George Frideric Handel’s Alcina (HWV 34). Subsequent repertoire at Confidencen included Vincezo Bellini’s La sonnambula, Joseph Haydn’s Il mondo della luna, La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and Wikström’s The Outlaw, among many other works that spanned the classic to the contemporary.

The Nordic Chamber Opera regularly tours Sweden performing abbreviated versions of classic operas for schools, in addition to presenting operas written for children such as Aladdin, Peter Pan, and Junker Nils, based on a story by Astrid Lindgren. The Nightingale, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale and with music by Wikström, was staged at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, as well as in Germany.