libretto by Laura Krohn Voipio
(originally in Finnish – winner of the national libretto competition organized by Savonlinna Opera Festival)
commissioned by Savonlinna Opera Festival
6 main soloists, choir and orchestra (3232 2221 timp 3perc harp str)
not performed
“She was my love. My entire literary work is a monument to her and in her honour. I take her with me to the annals, lift her up on a pedestal of triumph and say: Please make way, dear Regine is coming.” (Søren Kierkegaard)
Barely fifteen years old, bourgeois daughter Regine Olsen met Søren Kierkegaard, a theology master and budding writer ten years her senior, at a family friend’s house. Kierkegaard was a socially backward and gloomy scholar whose career was just beginning. Regine was only a home-schooled young lady, but quick-witted and artistically gifted. Some mysterious, intuitive force drew these two thinkers together for the rest of their lives. Kierkegaard pondered Regine for two years before proposing, in his nature, abruptly and without warning. Regine, intrigued by Kierkegaard’s peculiar ideas, said yes, although it was still unclear what the theologian’s plans for life were.
This was the beginning of a love story that would leave its mark on the whole of their lives, but above all on Søren Kierkegaard’s entire oeuvre.
