The Snow Queen

Have you heard the tale of two children who embark on an adventure during which they meet fairytale characters and return, fully transformed, as adults?

Hans Abrahamsen’s (*1952) three-act opera The Snow Queen, based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, premiered in Copenhagen in 2019. This is a coming-of-age story about Kay and Gerda, two kids who live next door to one another. When a splinter of ice pierces Kay’s eye and freezes his heart, the friends become estranged. For Gerda this is the start on an extraordinary journey to strange places.

The Snow Queen is a magnificent, multi-layered opera that casts a whole new light on the fairy tale on which it is based. The Danish composer’s intricate and painstakingly detailed score is expressive, sensitive and liberating. He provides colourful and memorable portrayals of the individual emotional states of the characters. You can literally hear Abrahamsen’s love of snow, ice and the cold; and here the natural elements should be understood as a metaphor for people who have lost contact with each other. But in the end, the hearts of the protagonists are melted – Kay and Gerda reaffirm their deep mutual bond: “It's summer, the warm and blessed summer.” This journey into the innermost depths of the human soul has a star-studded cast headed by Georg Zeppenfeld as the Snow Queen, Christa Mayer as the Grandmother and Vera-Lotte Boecker and Valerie Eickhoff as Gerda and Kay.