This is a story about a struggle for power in old Denmark, and a magnificent opera about events which led to the murder of King Erik Clipping in 1286. To present this dramatic episode from Danish history, a power play rooted in love, jealousy and honour, Danish composer Peter Heise (1830–1879) composed gripping music with a razor-sharp dramatic sense and great lyrical beauty. It is Danish romance at its most powerful and immediate.

On 22 November 1286, a Danish king was murdered in a barn near a little country town south-west of Viborg. Was it revenge for a rape, or a politically motivated killing? Or perhaps both? The king was called Eric, nicknamed ‘Clipping’. He was around 37 years old, and when he was found in Finderup barn, he had been stabbed 56 times.

When Peter Heise (1830–1879) wrote the opera Drot og Marsk (King and Marshal) in the 1870s, he had made his name as his generation’s most successful composer of romances in Denmark, but he had yet to establish a reputation as a composer of opera.

The opera was first performed at the Royal Danish Theatre on 25 September 1878. Drot og Marsk has remained in the repertoire of the Royal Danish Theatre to this day.

In 2019 Drot og Marsk was played for the first time on the stage at Copenhagen’s magnificent new opera house on Holmen, directed by Amy Lanes and Kasper Holten, with a huge chorus of 90, apparent in the live recording presented here.

The Royal Danish Theatre’s former music director, Michael Schønwandt, returned to the Opera House to conduct the performances.

Two of Denmark’s hallmark international opera singers, Johan Reuter and Peter Lodahl, face off as the bloody rivals Marshal Stig and King Erik.

Cast:
- King Erik: Peter Lodahl
- Marshal Stig Andersen: Johan Reuter
- Lady Ingeborg: Sine Bundgaard
- Rane Johnsen: Gert Henning Henning-Jensen
- Åse: Sofie Elkjær Jensen
- Count Jakob of Halland: Morten Staugaard
- Archdeacon Jens Grand: Simon Duus
- Arved Bengtsen: Mathias Monrad Møller
- Herald: Teit Kanstrup