About the work
Opera (Op. 43) by Kurt Atterberg, libretto by Bruno Hardt-Warden and Ignaz Michael Welleminsky, premiered on 18 March 1941 at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.
Plot
The opera retells the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp from "One Thousand and One Nights": the young dreamer Aladdin, aided by the lamp's spirit Dschababirah, finds himself in conflict and in love with Princess Laila at the court of Sultan Nazzredin of Samarkand.
Cultural significance
Despite favourable reviews, the Stockholm run stayed limited to eleven performances; because co-librettist Welleminsky, being Jewish, could not be credited, the work largely faded from memory. Only a 2017 production at Staatstheater Braunschweig – worldwide only the third staging – brought the opera back to the stage.