Harald Sæverud is best known for his monumental war symphonies and nature-inspired piano pieces. Few people know that he also composed music for a ballet. The Nightmare of Bluebeard premiered in 1960 and was an immediate audience success. The ballet is based on the well-known fairy tale of Bluebeard, who murdered his many wives. In the ballet, the knight is haunted by his dead wives: one by one, he relives their murders, before the wives ultimately take their revenge on him.
Despite its morbid storyline, the ballet music shows Sæverud at his most playful: melodic, captivating and – naturally – highly danceable. The Nightmare of Bluebeard was last performed as a ballet in 1961. Sæverud reworked the music into a suite, which has since been performed a handful of times, but never recorded. In 2023, the piano version of the ballet was discovered in a cupboard at Siljustøl, and it will now be performed for the first time. A historic event, in other words!
Pianist Harald Ramm Haugland performs the ballet music in the grand salon at Siljustøl. Between the musical pieces, Johannes Holtmon (curator, Kode) takes us into the story of the ballet, its history, and asks what the Bluebeard myth can tell us today.
About the artist Harald Ramm Haugland is, for now, a young and spirited pianist and composer, with infectious energy and a distinctive musical voice. He has performed at many of Norway’s leading chamber music festivals, both as a soloist and chamber musician. On stage, he often incorporates improvisation and his own compositions. With a solid foundation in classical music, he is a versatile musician who can be found performing in everything from Baroque ensembles and improvised opera to party bands, and everything in between. In the summer of 2023, he performed as a soloist in Rhapsody in Blue with Hygge Korpsensemble, and premiered his own Sonata for Tuba and Piano with August Schieldrop (tuba) at Gamle Logen during the Oslo Chamber Music Festival. The work was published by Norsk Musikkforlag in autumn 2024.
Harald holds a bachelor’s degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he studied with Professor Håvard Gimse. In spring 2025, he worked as a répétiteur at the conservatory in Florence. His previous teachers include Christian Ihle Hadland and Michael Endres at the Unge Talenter programme at Barratt Due Institute of Music, and Lars Haugbro at Foss Upper Secondary School’s music programme.