About the work
Henrik Ibsen wrote The Master Builder in Christiania in 1892, after returning there following 27 years abroad; the play was published on 12 December 1892 in Christiania and two days later in Copenhagen, in an edition of 10,000 copies. After a copyright-securing Norwegian-language reading at London’s Theatre Royal on 7 December 1892, the actual world premiere took place on 19 January 1893 at Berlin’s Lessing-Theater, directed by and starring Emanuel Reicher as Solness.
Plot
Master builder Halvard Solness, whose success rests on the fire that destroyed his wife’s childhood home, meets young Hilde Wangel, whom he had met ten years earlier. She insists he once promised her a ‘kingdom’ and now demands he make good on it. Despite his fear of heights, Solness climbs the tower of his latest building to hang a wreath and falls to his death, while Hilde waves triumphantly.
Cultural significance
In the figure of Hilde, Ibsen also drew on his 1889 encounter with the young Viennese Emilie Bardach. The psychologically dense chamber play about guilt, ageing and desire met a mixed but on balance more favourable response than its predecessors and today counts as a key text of Ibsen’s symbolist-inflected late work.