The Lizard (Sibelius)

The Lizard (in Swedish: Ödlan), Op. 8, is a theatre score for string ensemble—comprising six to nine musicians—by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius; he wrote the music in 1909 to accompany the Finnish author Mikael Lybeck's 1908 three-act, Symbolist play (skådespel) of the same name. The story, which takes place at the Eyringe family estate, is a romantic triangle: Alban, an overly-sensitive nobleman with an artist's soul, is engaged to Elisiv, the tender and virtuous nurse who had cared for his late father; however, he struggles to resist the carnal advances of his older cousin Adla (her name is a near homonym for ödla, the Swedish word for ), a cunning temptress whose plot to seduce him turns lethal. Sibelius contributed music for two scenes in Act II: Tableau 1, in which Alban plays his violin at the family burial chapel, hoping to summon his deceased relatives; and Tableau 3, in which Elisiv during a fever dream hears "strange" music and, later with three Eyringe ghosts, ponders the thin line between life and death.

The play premiered on 6 April 1910 at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki; Gustaf Molander and Karin Molander created the roles of Alban and Elisiv, respectively, while the Swedish actress Valborg Hansson guest starred as Adla. During Act II, Sibelius conducted the chamber ensemble, which for effect he positioned behind the stage. The critics praised Sibelius's music as having fit the mood of the play well. Nevertheless, the production folded after just six performances, and The Lizard was never revived in Sibelius's lifetime. Although it was Sibelius's habit to excerpt suites from his theatre scores (as he had with, for example, King Christian II in 1898, Pelléas et Mélisande in 1905, Belshazzar's Feast in 1907, and Swanwhite in 1908), he never did so with The Lizard. Scholars speculate that this is because the music is dependent on the play's action.

The composer thought highly of his contribution to The Lizard, describing it to his patron and confidant Axel Carpelan as "one of the most exquisite works I have written". Stylistically, Sibelius deploys chromaticism to achieve a darkly-colored and dream-like palette. The Lizard comes from Sibelius's "crisis period" (1908–1912) and is therefore a 'psychological' work comparable to the string quartet Voces intimae (1909) and the Fourth Symphony (1911).

In the intervening decades, The Lizard has entered neither the Finnish nor the international repertories, and its significance is therefore primarily as a historical curiosity: Sibelius's lone theatre score for chamber ensemble. Accordingly, it has been recorded only a few times, with Juha Kangas and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra having made the world premiere studio recording in 1994. A typical performance lasts about 17 minutes.

Composition
Lybeck began writing The Lizard in 1907 and completed it in 1908; published by Albert Bonnier (Stockholm), the book became available to the public on 20 November 1908. The Finnish literary critics received the play positively, praising in particular the author's concise prose and—surprisingly, given his inexperience in the genre—sure sense for the dramatic; nevertheless, several wondered whether The Lizard could be staged successfully, given its dreamlike scenes and Lybeck's extensive stage directions. Sibelius read the play with alacrity and wrote to Lybeck of its impact.

Premiere
The fact that Sibelius had contributed original music tended to increase any play's box office.

At the premiere, the ensemble consisted of seven musicians: two first violins (including Victor Carnier, who took the violin solo in Tableau 1), one second violin, one viola, two cellos (one of whom was Bror Persfelt), and one contrabass.

The contract Sibelius signed with Lybeck in 1909 stipulated that the latter would, in exchange for a fee, own the rights to the incidental music. As such, after 's six performances in 1910, Lybeck took possession of the autograph score and parts. With the playwright's death on 11 October 1925, the music became part of his estate, with which it remained until 1960 when his heirs donated the materials to the Sibelius Museum in Turku. The autograph score is an important historical document because it contains extensive rehearsal markings in the composer's hand. The Lizard finally was published—over 80 years after its premiere—in 1997 by Edition Fazer (now Fennica Gehrman); the publisher advertises the "delicate" score as "Sibelius at his most enchanting ... with "chromatic and whole note motifs and mysterious string tremolos [that] are a direct forerunner of Tapiola.

Structure and roles
The Lizard is a stage drama in three acts, of which Act II is subdivided further into three tableaux. Sibelius's incidental music is played in Tableau 1 (near the end of the scene) and Tableau 3 (the entirety of the scene). The play includes ten roles, three principal—Alban, Elisiv, and Adla—and seven minor. These are as follows:

The entire play takes place at the Eyringe family estate:
 * Act I: The terrace room of the family mansion
 * Act II, Tableau 1: The burial chapel†
 * Act II, Tableau 2: The terrace room
 * Act II, Tableau 3: Within Elisiv's fever dream†
 * Act III: Elisiv's bedchamber

† Includes music by Sibelius.

Synopsis


The principal character in the play, Count Alban, is engaged to Elisiv, who represents everything that is pure. But, Adla —word that resembles to Ödlan or lizard— symbolizes evil and arouses both fear and passion in Alban. Elisiv and Adla both struggle to keep Alban's soul on their side. Elisiv trips, falls, and perishes in the struggle, but in revenge, Alban kills the evil that exists within himself - i.e. Adla.

Music
The Lizard is scored for violin solo and small string ensemble, consisting of a minimum of five additional players: 2 violins, viola, cello, and double bass. Sibelius also stipulated that there should be no more than nine players total.


 * Adagio—Più adagio, to Act II, Tableau 1
 * Grave—Adagio, to Act II, Tableau 3

Discography
The Finnish conductor Juha Kangas and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording in the autumn of 1994 for Finlandia Records (now Warner Classics). Critics largely have received The Lizard positively. Erik Levi, who reviewed the Kangas recording for BBC Music Magazine, noted that the "strangely withdrawn" music to The Lizard was one of the few of Sibelius's compositions for strings to have "reach[ed] the compositional heights of the symphonies and tone poems". In his review of the Segerstam recording, 's Andrew Achenbach declared The Lizard a "fascinating discovery ... luminously scored ... containing much duskily beautiful and splendidly atmospheric invention, not to mention some fascinating harmonic and textural foreshadowings of Tapiola". Similarly, Rob Barnett of MusicWeb International found The Lizard—with its "inky expressionist caverns"—"fascinating ... sinister stuff ... likely to puzzle the Sibelian generalist". On the other hand, David Hurwitz with Classics Today characterizes The Lizard as "all atmosphere and repetition of brief melodic patterns ... something moody that never forces you to pay attention". As such, he concludes, Sibelius was probably wise to never fashion a concert suite from the incidental music: "It would have been nearly impossible ... There's very little actual music here". The sortable table below lists all commercially available recordings of The Lizard:

Notes, references, and sources

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