Antikrist

Antikrist (English: Antichrist) is the only opera by Danish composer Rued Langgaard. It was composed in 1921–23 and reworked in 1926–30, but despite several attempts by the composer to have it performed, the work was not premiered until many years after Langgaard's death. Today, it is considered Langgaard's principal work and is included in the Danish Culture Canon; it was the first Danish opera recorded on DVD in 2002.

Background

The first version of Antikrist was completed in 1923 and submitted to the Royal Danish Theatre that year. It was rejected then and several times later because of censorship problems.

In 1926 the composer began a complete rewrite of the work. The text, which had been the overriding reason for the rejection, was radically rewritten. The new version was completed in 1930, after which Langgaard again tried to get it accepted at the Royal Theatre. It didn't help; it was rejected and was turned back again in 1935, again with the text as the primary criticism.

Langgaard was slightly more successful in getting the work accepted by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, where the conductor Launy Grøndahl worked on the opera in 1940. The work however was not performed until 1980 by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Michael Schønwandt. The first recording was made in 1988 by Ole Schmidt and the Copenhagen Philharmonic.