• Peer Gynt  is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays
• The Peer Gynt Festival is held in Norway every year
• The incidental music for the play, of which “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” are the most popular movements, was composed by Edvard Grieg, one of the most significant composers of the Romantic era
• SNG Maribor has given sold-out ballet performances at the Moscow’s Bolshoi theatre
• Edward Clug – dancer, choreographer and artistic director of SNG Maribor Ballet – is among the nominees for this year’s European Citizen’s Prize

Libretto: Edward Clug
Music: Edvard Grieg

Conductor: Simon Robinson

Choreography: Edward Clug
Costume design: Leo Kulaš
Set design: Marko Japelj
Lighting design: Tomaž Premzl
Sculptures: Ivo Nemec, Milena Greifoner
Assistant choreographers: Matjaž Marin, Miloš Isailović
Chorus master: Zsuzsa Budavari Novak
Concertmaster: Oksana Pečeny Dolenc

Cast:
Peer Gynt: Miloš Isailović a. g.
Solveig: Evgenija Koškina
Death: Gaj Žmavc
Ase, Peer’s mother: Tanja Baronik
The Deer: Sytze Jan Luske
Ingrid, the bride: Tijuana Križman Hudernik
Aslak the blacksmith: Sergiu Moga
The woman in green: Tetiana Svetlična
Mads Moen, the groom: Lucio Mautone
Anitra, the daughter of a Bedouin’s chief: Monja Obrul
Little Helga: Ema Perić
Begriffenfeldt, the doctor: Sergiu Moga
The Four lunatics: Tetiana Svetlična, Mirjana Šrot, Davide Buffone, Marta Tiberiu
The Three dairymaids: Klavdija Stanišić, Olesja Hartmann Marin, Hristina Stoycheva
The troll chief: Vadim Kurgajev

Wedding guests, trolls, women, men, villagers: Catarina De Meneses, Mirjana Šrot, Monja Obrul, Tea Bajc, Mina Radaković, Alexandru Pilca, Davide Buffone, Matteo Magalotti, Jan Trninič, Tomaž Golub, Satomi Netsu, Metka Masten, Pia Clug, Adriana Cioata, Ines Urošević, Marta Tiberiu, Mircea Golescu, Vasilij Kuzkin, Cristian Popovici, Hristina Stoycheva, Olesja Hartmann Marin, Ema Perić, Ines Uroševič

The seductive and bold Norwegian dreamer Peer Gynt – depicted in a dramatic poem by Henrik Ibsen that was subsequently converted into a play with original music by Edward Grieg – is the protagonist of contemporary ballet by Edward Clug. Peer Gynt enjoyed great success when it premiered in Oslo in 1876, thanks in great part to the music, which perfectly matches the psychological states of the play’s main protagonist and the adventures into which he falls. Through his actions, Peer Gynt is comparable to other famous heroes such as Don Quixote, Faust, Hamlet and Don Juan, and represents the individual as a fearless seeker of truth in a world where love is the only thing that binds human beings together. Edward Clug has created a new interpretation of this complex story and transformed it into a ballet that follows Ibsen’s chronological sequence of events: from the kidnapping of a young bride, to his flight with another woman, to dangerous entanglements with trolls. It includes adventures with Bedouins, who hail him as a prophet, a secret wedding to an Arab princess, her deception of him and his return to Norway, where the faithful Solveig welcomes him full of love. As well as the movements originally composed as incidental music for the drama, Clug’s ballet uses Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1 in G minor (Op. 27), Piano Concerto in A minor (Op. 16) and Holberg Suite (Op. 40) to achieve a dynamic and coherent development of the narrative expressed through dance and combine them into a unique landscape of music and dance that offers a new theatrical experience.