The poet Adam Oehlenschläger, the dramatist Johan Ludvig Heiberg and the balletmaster August Bournonville were the dominant personalities in the Royal Theatre during the first half of the 19th century. They led the way in the drama of the age, which was an expression of a new national romanticism. However, this by no means meant that they did not go abroad or derive inspiration from current trends in the rest of Europe. But as a result of the bourgeois and national proclivity, the past and the popular culture of the country were important areas.
The view of art was demonstrated in both Oehlenschläger’s Nordic tragedies, Heiberg’s satirical vaudevilles and the many comedies and national singspiels.
The main composers in the realm of the singspiel were C.E.F. Weyse and F.D.R. Kuhlau. With the music of the folk ballad as their inspiration, they worked closely together with Oehlenschläger on the new Danish singspiels. Hans Christian Andersen, too, was inspired by the ballads. In 1846 he wrote the text for the opera Little Kirsten, for which J.P.E. Hartman composed the music. It was a great success.
So were Heiberg’s satirical vaudevilles. As the popular music dramatic genre of the age, they were a kind of local satire and therefore to many people a “source of scandal”. As one of the dominant critics of the period, Heiberg moreover helped to create a pattern for the taste and culture of the period. His wife, the actress Johanne Luise Heiberg, was moreover the leading actress of the time.
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