Composers and their stage works 

When We Dead Awaken

(Naar vi dede vaagner)

Henrik Ibsen - 1899.

Drama in three acts.

After four years abroad, Arnold Rubek, a sculptor renowned for his statue "Resurrection Day," and his young wife Maja are staying at a mountain resort where Maja becomes interested in another guest, the virile bear-hunter Ulfheim. Also at the resort is Irene von Satow, whom Rubek recognizes as the model for the work that had made him famous. He learns from her that she had loved him passionately at that time. On his part, however, he had merely used her to inspire his art. Irene invites him up into the mountains, and this expedition coincides with a plan made by Maja and Ulfheim.

As they proceed, Rubek confesses to Irene that he has been tortured by the realization that his rejection of her was a denial of life, for which art has proved a poor substitute. He begs her to give him another chance, saying that his marriage with Maja has become unbearable. Irene rejects his plea, telling him that they are both dead and that there is no resurrection in this life. Urging him on to the heights, Irene leads Rubek upward. They pass the other couple, who are descending to escape an on-coming storm. Rubek now calls on his lost love to awaken so that they may live life to the fullest before they go to their graves. Striving toward the sunlit peak, Rubek and Irene are buried in an avalanche as Maja's song of freedom rings out from farther down the mountain.